Farmscape for October 19, 2007 (Episode 2619) Research conducted by the University of Saskatchewan shows crops grown using injected solid cattle manure produce yields equal to those of crops grown using more conventional manure application methods. The University of Saskatchewan's Department of Soil Science is evaluating crops grown using composted feedlot cattle manure applied to the soil using a new solid manure injection system developed by the Prairie Agricultural Machinery institute. In the first year of the trial oats were planted. Senior research scientist Dr. Jeff Schoenau explains scientists are evaluating yield, nutrient uptake by the crop and the impact on nutrients in the soil. Clip-Dr. Jeff Schoenau-University of Saskatchewan We've got our yield data back and we certainly found a good yield response of the oats to application of manure in general. I'll also point out that, at the low rate of manure application which was 20 tonnes per hectare, we had some treatments where we had supplemental nitrogen fertilizer incorporated and in fact at the low rates of the manure application we did see that the additional nitrogen fertilizer was beneficial and that's because the solid cattle manures do tend to release their nutrients fairly slowly and for that reason we do see some benefit with supplemental commercial fertilizer nitrogen. In terms of comparison of the application methods we have a broadcast without incorporation, a broadcast with incorporation and then the solid cattle manure injection and in fact we found that really the yield in the injected solid cattle manure plots really wasn't significantly different from the other methods of application. Now we will be looking at nitrogen recovery for example. We don't have that data yet but, just looking at the yields, very little difference amongst the application methods this first year. The trial is scheduled to continue for three years. Dr. Schoenau notes that will allow the evaluation of additional crops and, in addition to the agronomic aspects, scientists will be evaluating several potential environmental benefits of using the new technology. For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane. *Farmscape is a presentation of Sask Pork and Manitoba Pork Council |