Winter spreading of manure is not something that is popular with many environmental folks. This has recently come to a head in Iowa where they are allowing producers to spread manure in the winter for five more years with approval by the state. However, a local advocacy group, that has been fighting this ruling, is vowing to take note of every bit of manure spread and report any problems.
The winter months, when the ground is frozen, are the months that see the most manure runoff because the manure and it's nutrients do not have an opportunity to be incorporated into the soil. Therefore, they sit on top of the soil until the ground thaws. Therefore, any sudden precipitation or snow melt can lead to manure runoff into local waterways.
In Pennsylvania, winter manure spreading is still allowed, but with certain regulations. For example, the maximum that can be spread is 5,000 gallons of liquid manure or 20 tons of dry manure per acre or applied to the phosphorus removal rate of the coming year's crop. There needs to be 40% crop residue, a growing cover crop, or pasture for manure to be spread on any field. There may be other rules that apply once the new Manure Manual regulations come out this spring, and the EPA is still working with Pennsylvania to try to eliminate winter spreading all together.
Although many do not like winter manure spreading, including many farmers, building enough storage to last through the entire winter is very costly. For example, an average concrete storage big enough for four months of storage on a 100 lactating cow dairy can cost around $50,000. With milk prices and feed costs the way they are finding that kind of money is difficult. There are cost-share programs available to alleviate the installation costs, but even coming up with the money to cost share is challenging for many small dairies.
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