Surpassing its more traditional counterparts in manure application are the relatively new manure injection systems that are now available. Ridding farmers of the burden of traditional tilling to apply manure under the soil and helping the environment by getting rid of surface application is a wonderful new option to enrich your soil easily and effectively. As more and more studies are being done on the science behind manure management, it is becoming apparent that this is going to become the new leading application when it comes to manure fertilization for your soil.
Q: What are manure injection systems?
A: Manure injection systems are part of a no-till farming practice. They follow Best Management Practices and have been proven to be not only safer for the environment but also more effective at enriching the soil to produce better crops.
Q: What are the benefits of manure injection?
A: The benefits of manure injection are immense. The major benefit is that the ammonia from manure is buried deep under the soil, decreasing nutrient loss due to volatilization. It also eliminates the need to side-dress the field later on, which means less work to do and more money saved. An added benefit is that the smell from the manure is minimized while providing a more even application throughout the field.
Q: What kind of research has been done on manure injections?
A: While this is still a relatively new area of practice, there are plenty of studies that show the benefits of manure injection. Currently, agricultural focused universities across are in the process of comparing multiple years worth of crop yield on four different fields: fields treated with manure injection, fields treated with surface application (broadcasting), injection with no manure, and no injection with no manure (this was used as the control in the study). Currently, the students are in their third year of crop studies but have been carefully controlling the experiment by clipping crop yield with the same clippers and dried in a Caldwell oven at 60 degrees Celsius for four days. The samples were then weighed and ground down to be sent to their lab for testing.