Considerable public investment in developing and promoting improved manure management on Wisconsin farms has not always had the desired outcome.

A recent statewide survey of more than 500 Wisconsin livestock farmers found that while 70 percent of farmers consider manure management important, many do not adopt management practices designed to protect the environment. Commonly recommended practices include constructing lined storage facilities, building concrete barnyard surfaces, concentrating spreading in the spring and fall, and installing engineered filter strips.

“Low adoption rates are not due to a lack of concern for the environment,” said Douglas Jackson-Smith, who conducted the survey for the Program on Agricultural Technology Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison”s College of Agricultural and Life Scences. “Farmers clearly care about environmental issues. Rather it seems that currently recommended manure management practices may not be practical on many farms,” he said.

About 61 percent of the survey respondents agree that livestock producers should develop manure management plans, and 68 percent see room to improve the environmental performance of agriculture. Farmers also feel that environmentalists and many non-farm people do not understand the complexities of modern farming. Farmers emphasize that narrow profit margins make it difficult to undertake expensive environmental protection measures without government cost-sharing programs.

“Unlike more specialized livestock farms elsewhere in the country, Wisconsin farmers usually have sufficient crop acreage to safely spread manure,” noted Jackson-Smith. Using manure as a source of fertilizer offers cost savings to the farmer and environmental benefits. However, if not managed properly, nutrients from manure (as well as commercial fertilizer) can leach into groundwater or run off into surface waters.

To ensure that nutrients end up in crops rather than waterways, experts have encouraged farmers to store manure in lined storage basins until the spring and fall, when it can be incorporated into the soil as fields are tilled. The PATS survey found that only one-quarter of Wisconsin dairy farmers, and less than 10 percent of other livestock farmers, had built lined storage facilities.

The research also found that manure management practices varied by type of livestock and farm size. In general, dairy farmers were more likely than other livestock farmers to have installed systems for minimizing environmental contamination. However, dairy farmers were less likely to spread manure at optimal times in the spring and fall. More than 73 percent of dairy farmers spread manure daily or frequently, compared with just 16 percent of all other livestock operators.

The largest dairy farms were the most likely to build lined storage facilities, use concrete livestock yards, and spread manure in the spring and fall. “The survey results suggest that manure handling and storage recommendations as currently formulated are better suited for larger farms because they have the labor and financial resources to implement them,” said Jackson-Smith.

Besides economies of scale, planning horizons may influence manure management decisions. More than half of the dairy farm respondents expected to leave farming within the next five years. “Although intentions to leave are not always a good predictor of actual farm exits, short time horizons may prevent farmers from making investments which require long pay-back periods,” said Jackson-Smith.

Environmental risk depends upon a complex array of factors. “Just because farmers spread manure daily or cannot store manure for long periods of time does not mean they are damaging the environment,” points out Jackson-Smith. “The manure management practices of most farmers do not cause significant environmental problems.”

What does all this mean for the future? According to Jackson-Smith, future research and extension efforts should be directed toward developing new technologies and management strategies that better fit the needs of typical Wisconsin livestock farms – moderate-scale, family labor farms with limited financial resources.

For copies of the full report, Manure Management in Wisconsin, write to the Program on Agricultural Technology Studies at 1450 Linden Drive, Room 146, Madison, WI 53706, call (608) 265-2908, or e-mail mrostrom@facstaff.wisc.edu