The Manitoba Livestock Manure Management Initiative is calling for proposals for the creation of a manure management system that better utilizes the principle of gravity to separate the solid and liquid fractions of swine manure.
The mandate of Manitoba Livestock Manure Management Imitative is to advise Manitoba’s livestock industry on sustainable environmental practices and to facilitate research into practical manure management solutions that will work under Manitoba conditions.
The application deadline for the initiative’s call for proposals in the area of gravity separation is November 20th and the project is expected to start in December.
MLMMI executive director John Carney says where it’s necessary to move manure off the farm, the goal is to concentrate phosphorus into a less expensive material to transport.
It’s been shown that gravity causes solids to settle and it’s been shown that solids are phosphorus rich, so gravity is a proven approach to phosphorus separation.
We’re looking for ways to design storages in a way that we can better use gravity as a potentially cost effective solution.
With any form of separation you also get the benefits of creating two streams of output, a nitrogen rich liquid and a phosphorus rich solid.
So we’re looking for something that’s farm ready, that’s economically practical that will work within our climate because not every technology and approach meets those criteria.
In terms of the expected economic and social implications we need to find solutions here that we can make work in this province.
Then there’s all the spin-off benefits that agriculture generates for Manitoba if we can find these solutions and put them in place.
For more information on solid liquid manure separation or the MLMMI’s latest call for research proposals, visit manure.mb.ca.
