The Executive Director of the Manitoba Livestock Manure Management Initiative says livestock producers are looking for practical farm-ready solutions they can use for dealing the nutrients contained in manure.
The Manitoba Livestock Manure Management Initiative has issued a request for research proposals in the area of “Separated Manure Solids: Technical and Economic Evaluation of Beneficial Management Practices.”
The research will focus on the storage, transportation and application of separated manure solids, post processing of separated manure solids, agronomic considerations and the market value of separated manure solids.
MLMMI Executive Director John Carney says, for anybody contemplating solid-liquid manure separation, it introduces a whole host of questions.
There are a few livestock intensive areas in the province where the livestock generate more phosphorus than the crops can use.
Separating solids from that manure is one of the approaches that can be use to isolate and capture that phosphorus.
Manure separation, we can think of that like a system.
We’ve done some work in the province on the front end of the system, that is the manure separation part however, once you’ve got it separated, the question is what do you do and what’s the economics of dealing with the solids.
There’s alternatives out there and the focus is on finding and evaluating farm-ready solutions, things that are practical that are in place today and then understanding whether they work under Manitoba, both economic and climate conditions.
In the province we currently lack a good understanding of both the operational and economic aspects managing that solid manure stream.
Carney notes the deadline for submitting proposals is April 20, 2012 and the hope is the project can get underway in May.
For more information on the request for research proposals visit the Manitoba Livestock Manure Management Initiative web site at manure.mb.ca.
