A New Holland Agriculture 100 series box spreader distributes manure for fertilizer. (CNH Industrial/Handout via REUTERS) Posted on 04/20/2022 11:43:57 AM PDT by SJackson
A New Holland Agriculture 100 series box spreader distributes manure for fertilizer. (CNH Industrial/Handout via REUTERS)
The war in Ukraine is causing a rise in oil and wheat prices. Other items are hard to come by due to international restrictions on doing business with Russia. For example, many countries are seeing less fish than usual, because Russia usually catches and sells a lot of fish.
However, one item you may not think of that often is harder to find than normal. That is the crop-growing aid known as fertilizer.
Fertilizer is added to soil and provides plants such as wheat and corn with nutrients so they can grow. But some of the chemicals used to make fertilizer, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, require a lot of energy. As energy sources like gas, oil and coal get more expensive, so does fertilizer.
Why a fertilizer shortage?
The Dutch bank Rabobank said 40 percent of the world’s supply of potash, or potassium chloride, comes from Russia and Belarus. Potash is an important fertilizer ingredient, and it is not as available as usual.
A company that follows fertilizer in London, CRU Group, said nitrogen-based fertilizer is four times more expensive than it was in 2020. Fertilizer made from phosphate and potash has gotten three times more expensive.
As a result, farmers are more interested than before in using animal waste, sometimes called manure, as fertilizer. The animal waste has some of those nutrients and can be used by farmers to make their soil healthier.
The waste from animals like cows can be used as fertilizer. Picture taken March 16, 2022 in Piana di Monte Verna, Italy. (REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane)
Farmers that raise livestock such as cows and pigs normally have to pay to get manure removed from their land. However, due to the high cost of fertilizer, people are paying the farmers to pick it up.
“Manure is absolutely a hot commodity,” said Allen Kampschnieder, a farming consultant. There are long lists of farmers waiting for manure deliveries.
Farm equipment sales rise
The need for manure is also helping people who make farm equipment that helps dry and spread manure. The spreaders are called “honeywagons.”
Phinite is a company based in North Carolina that makes manure dryers. The dryers take the water out of the waste and make it easier to spread. Phinite said it has gotten calls for its equipment from farmers in Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois and Indiana.
One company in Canada, Husky Farm Equipment, makes honeywagons. Some of them can cost $70,000. The company’s president, Walter Grose, says they are sold out for six months.
Other companies that make similar products said they are selling more than normal.
Abe Sandquist says he has worked for much of his career to sell manure to farmers. Now, he doesn’t have enough. “I wish we had more to sell,” he said, “but there’s not enough to meet the demand.”
In the U.S., high fertilizer costs will likely cause farmers to plant fewer crops. The government notes the amount of wheat stored in the U.S. is at its lowest in 14 years.
Some concerns
The manure will be able to replace some of the fertilizer, but it is not risk-free. First, there is not enough supply. Second, it is costly to transport. And third, there are environmental concerns about manure. Experts believe the manure can make water unhealthy.
As a result, it is hard for farmers that raise pigs and cows to easily get into the manure business. 
A custom hauler spreads dairy manure on hay ground in Wallenstein, Ontario, U.S., in the spring of 2018. (Husky Farm Equipment Ltd./Handout via REUTERS)
Jim Monroe is a spokesperson for a large company that raises pigs. He said more farmers are thinking about using manure to help grow crops.
Dale Cramer is unsure about what he will do. He grows corn, soybeans and wheat in the Midwestern U.S. state of Nebraska. He has been trying to get manure for his 2,400 hectares of land. So far, he has not found any.
Kampschnieder said manure prices are almost 100 percent higher than usual.
Pat Reisinger is a farmer in Iowa. He said he is glad he raises animals, because he can use their manure for his corn and soybeans. He is also able to sell a little to his neighbors.
Farm economy changes
Reisinger, however, is unique. In recent years, farms like his are less common.
A liquid manure tank filled with dairy manure is seen in Wallenstein, Ontario. (Husky Farm Equipment Ltd./Handout via REUTERS)
Instead, certain regions in the U.S. are known for producing items like eggs, milk and meat. That is where the most manure can be found. However, some of those regions are far away from the areas that need the animal waste. As a result, some parts of the U.S. have too much manure and others do not have enough.
Brett Reinford of Pennsylvania raises cows that produce milk. Last year, he told other farmers they could take his manure. No one wanted it. Now he has something valuable.
“I wish we had more,” he said.
I’m Dan Friedell
With the covid shutdowns, there was a sudden influx of new people in the homesteading and self-reliance forums I’m in. With the fertilizer shortage I’m seeing the same with the permaculture and organic farming forums. People are looking for backup plans they can have in place for when they can’t get what they need.
Personally, I’m working to increase the level of biochar in my soil. I make it mostly from crop waste, although it would also work with things that are unwise to compost, like diseased plants or dog poo. The process sterilizes everything, so it could be used with “humanure” as well. But biochar has been shown to have long-term benefits in terms of soil fertility, so I figure it’s work the extra work.
PS: The language used in this article reads like something from my 4th grade science book. Anyone else notice that?
Pretty sure the Amish use manure. The area around Hagerstown stinks to high heaven every Spring.
“PS: The language used in this article reads like something from my 4th grade science book. Anyone else notice that?”
Yes, I did. I kept thinking while reading, “does the writer think we’re all idiots?”
We will be using all of the poop generated by our pigs on our cornfields. Soybeans do not need nitrogen, so we have spread it exclusively on corn ground.
On our second trip to Europe we drove all over the place, out in the country, saw many fertile fields. We saw a manure spreader. My spouse called it a sh*t spreader. Made up a poem. I am a sh*t spreader, I spread sh*t, all the sh*t that I spread is well spread sh*t. Come to think of it, sounds like today’s democrats!
Nelson
The house I grew up in was built in about 1879. We didn’t have central heat or air. We had a floor furnace downstairs and trust me, that heat didn’t make it upstairs to the bedrooms. Summers were HOT, winters were COLD, and no way I could live like that now. We had a water well outside and we had a chicken coop. When we tore down the unused coop our garden was there and everything grew like crazy there. It was amazing. I can see how chicken poo could be a GREAT fertilizer. I have never seen such a shade of red as those tomatoes. You never forget home grown ripe tomatoes. Nothing else compares. You waited for your first BLT of the year, eagerly!!!!
We have relatives in Palo and Cedar R.
Nelson
Skillcult.com has some interesting historical documents, one of which compared the effects of charcoal vs manure in a spot where the manure had been piled several feet thick due to bad farming practices.
The observation was similar to what you describe, the spot with the manure was extremely fertile . . . for a while. But the loss of fertility could be observed year to year, until it was indistinguishable from the unfertilized soil.
But the part that was fascinating to me was that, on this same farm, there were several old charcoal-making pits where the small bits and fines had been left behind. Those not only showed fertility similar to the manure piles, they also kept their fertility even decades later! (https://skillcult.com/blog/2012/05/18/some-citations-on-biochar-in-europe-and-america-in-the-19th-century , the section titled “The Farmers’ cabinet, and American herd-book, Volume 11 1847”)
I’ve been working on better ways to make use of that information on my own farm. So far I’m only making tiny amounts of charcoal at a time, using crop waste. There isn’t enough firewood on my land to make it with wood. Charcoal has the added benefit of removing odors, so I started mixing it right in with the chicken bedding. We’ll see if it improves the soil as much as that article says it should, but even if all it does is control odors, I think it’s worth the effort. There’s a clear difference in the smell compared to before I started adding charcoal.
(The deodorizing effect also works if the animal eats the charcoal. I have a canister of food-grade charcoal powder that I bought. I mix a little now and then with the chicken feed, but my family has also started mixing a dash of it in with the cats’ food once a day. It’s amazing how much less stinky their litter boxes are when we do that! I’m surprised no company has tried marketing that, it seems like a lot of pet owners would love it if they could get pet treats that make the animal’s poop stink less!)
Leaves and grass clippings are rich in nutrients. They could be compiled for fertilizer.
Animal waste? Well, Amber Heard shits on Johnny Dell’s bed - maybe she can help
Gee, ya THINK?
Just compost it first and you have a very nice soil augmentation product.
In fact any animal poop works as long as it is composted.
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