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Dr. Graham Phipps
- Manitoba Water Stewardship |
| Farmscape for October 29, 2004 (Episode 1633)
Research in Southeastern Manitoba indicates swine manure fertilizer applied to established hay or pasture crops presents a minimal risk to groundwater quality.
A multi-disciplinary project in the RM of La Broquerie is evaluating the effect of manure fertilizer on hay and pasture production and the environment and tracking the productivity of the cattle that eat the forage.
Dr. Graham Phipps, a Hydrogeologist with Manitoba Water Stewardship, says monitoring wells in each manure treatment are being used to track water levels and the general chemistry of the water, including nitrate levels.
Clip-Dr. Graham Phipps-Manitoba Water Stewardship
The pre application nitrate concentration in the groundwater was quite low.
The average nitrate concentration on the site was around one milligram per liter of nitrate nitrogen and, after the first year of preliminary results, the average nitrate concentration remains around that one milligram per litre of nitrate nitrogen.
I think the results that we're seeing are at least partially attributable to the crop that was already there.
The hay was already established and, because of that, the root system was already there and it was able to the nutrients as they were applied.
From lessons we've learned from other sites, the monitoring suggests that when the land is broke to either grow annual crops and or to plant tame forages you can release a lot of nitrate nitrogen.
By having the crop already established or applying to an existing hay crop, the risk are much lower than what we'd see if that land had been broke just prior to applying the manure.
Dr. Phipps says the amount of nitrogen that can be released from breaking the soil can be substantial and can actually overwhelm what would be seen from the application of manure as a fertilizer.
He says, over time, that flush of nutrients will be used up by the crop as it becomes established while naturally occurring bacteria will also gradually reduce the levels of nitrates.
For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.
*Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork Council |
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| Keywords: environment |
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© Wonderworks Canada
2004 |
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