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NRCS Staff
NRCS Mission Statement
The Natural Resources Conservation Service provides leadership
in a partnership effort to help conserve, maintain, and improve
our natural resources and environment.
Our Role in Hamilton County
Our main goal and responsibility is to convey and implement the
USDA Farm Bill Programs in Hamilton County.
Explanation of Farm Bill Programs
The Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 is landmark
legislation for conservation funding and for focusing on
environmental issues. The conservation provisions will assist
farmers and ranchers in meeting environmental challenges on their
land. This legislation simplifies existing programs and creates
new programs to address high priority environmental and production
goals. The 2002 Farm Bill enhances the long-term quality of our
environmental and conservation of our natural resources.
 These
are just the most common programs used in Hamilton County, to find
out more visit the Ohio NRCS website by clicking
www.oh.nrcs.usda.gov
Here are some other helpful links for your use and up-to-date
info:
Increase the value
of your manure
Written by Stu Ellis, The Farm Gate July 7,
2009 – Manure. Every livestock operation deals with it and
depending upon the nature of the operation, manure can either be
an asset or a liability.
The 2008 Farm Bill directed the U.S. Department of Agriculture
to evaluate the role of manure as a fertilizer resource, its
environmental impact, and its potential as a feedstock for
bioenergy. If your operation is producing manure, will it have
more value as a fertilizer or energy feedstock?
The environmental and controversial impacts of manure are well
known to all livestock operation managers as well as neighbors,
both urban and rural. Application limits to cropland, water
pollution, odors, and similar issues increase the liability
factor exponentially. However, USDA economists say there is an
increasing interest in capturing the methane from manure and
converting it to electricity. But when that is done, is manure
being lost as an inexpensive form of fertilizer? The USDA study
found that manure is applied to less than 16 million acres of
cropland, about five percent, and corn receives about half of
the manure applications, primarily from dairy and hog
operations.
Recent high prices for commercial fertilizers make manure more
cost effective, except for transportation costs. For large
operations, Nutrient Management Plans require time and resources
to develop and implement. Once the manure is applied, the
primary issue is the nutrient value, which can vary and will
likely not be in the correct ratio for crop requirements.
Handling and stockpiling are always health and environmental
concerns.
The USDA economists determined that livestock production costs
would rise 2.5 to 3.5 percent if manure was not applied nearby
and was hauled any distance. However, as livestock operations
enlarge and costs are controlled, the economists doubt that
consumers would ever feel the impact of any change in whether
manure was diverted from cropland nutrients to energy feedstocks.
Among the potential energy benefits and potential uses of manure
are:
1) Dry manure has been a fuel for heat and cooking for
millennia.
2) Methane can be captured from biogas and burned for
electricity generation, either on farm or fed into the electric
grid.
3) Manure can be shipped to a central conversion facility.
4) Methane can be upgraded to natural gas for insertion into a
pipeline.
Currently, there are only a handful of energy plants operating
at livestock facilities. Less than three percent of dairies have
them and less than one percent of hog confinement facilities
have them. One Minnesota-based commercial plant uses 6.6 percent
of turkey litter in the U.S. But on-farm facilities may allow
livestock farmers to produce their own electricity and reduce
their overall energy costs, with the help of state grants to
reduce capital construction costs.
A lactating dairy cow will produce about 150 pounds of manure
daily, and if applied to cropland at a rate of 125 pounds of
nitrogen per acre, 2.64 acres would be required per cow. But
with many dairies expanding in western states without cropland,
manure has to be hauled at great expense. Hogs will each produce
1,200 pounds of manure in a finishing operation, and although
hog production is widespread in the western cornbelt, it is also
widespread in many states where cropland is insufficient to
dispose of the manure as a fertilizer. A broiler will produce 11
pounds of manure, and few poultry operations also have cropland,
but the relatively dry manure can be transported at minimal
expense. Two-thirds of cattle are fed at operations without
cropland, so the 4.9 tons of manure produced per head have to be
transported to cropland.
While nearly 16 million acres of cropland depends on manure for
a partial nutrient supply at least, the normal process may be
interrupted, or the nutrient components changed, if the manure
is initially processed by a methane digester. Bacteria in the
digester breakdown the manure and emit methane, which is
siphoned off for use. The USDA economists say farmers may
qualify for carbon credits if they capture methane and prevent
its flow into the atmosphere, and those credits would be valued
about $5 per ton of manure. But once the methane is produced and
used to heat mini power plants, what about the rest of the
nutrients? They are still there, and available to supply N, P,
and K for crop production. The digestion process reduces
pathogens, neutralizes weed seeds, and greatly reduces odors,
which may increase the value of the manure.
Livestock operations, particularly dairies and hog operations
with substantial volumes of slurry manure may be able to benefit
by processing the manure in a methane digester. The methane can
be used to fuel on-farm electricity generators or upgraded into
natural gas for sale. Farmers would be able to obtain carbon
credits at a $5 per ton rate. The processed manure can still be
utilized for cropland, with little loss in nutrient value, but
since the odor has been removed, the manure may take on a
greater value.
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