manure – Swine in Minnesota

Swine & U: Springtime manure application is just around the corner

By Diane DeWitte, UMN Extension swine educator for The LAND

Maybe your manure plan involves fall application, but as the soils thaw and the tiles begin to run, it’s a good idea to review a few environmental protection habits which will help keep nutrients where they belong.

University of Minnesota Extension provides good resources for nutrient application calculation and groundwater and shoreland protection at its manure management website. Extension manure management specialist, Melissa Wilson, and manure management crops educator Chryseis Modderman provide the latest best management practices for manure application in our Land of Ten Thousand Lakes and Nine Million Pigs.

Survival of Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Virus (PRRSV) in the Environment

In this review paper published in Veterinary Sciences, Valeria Lugo, a student working with Drs. Corzo and Goyal at the University of Minnesota, discusses the current knowledge of PRRS survivability based on temperature and other environmental conditions. The publication is available in open access on the journal’s website.

How is manure changing over time? Trends in Midwest manure sample data

This post comes from our colleagues at the University of Minnesota -College of Extension. Follow their latest news on their blog: Minnesota Crop News

This post was written by: Nancy Bohl Bormann, Graduate research assistant; Melissa Wilson, Extension manure management specialist, & Erin Cortus, Extension engineer

Key Points

Current livestock manure “book values” (the approximate amounts of various nutrients in manure) are several decades old.
Using recent data from several Midwest U.S. labs, we found that manure nutrient data have changed over time compared to previous Midwest Plan Service (MWPS) manure book values.
The University of Minnesota is creating a manure nutrient database called ManureDB to help update these values.
We are currently looking to partner with laboratories that analyze manure on this project.

PEDV Detection in Manure Pits Confirmed 841 to 1,949 days after Disease Outbreaks

This is our Friday rubric: every week a new Science Page from the Bob Morrison’s Swine Health Monitoring Project. The previous editions of the science page are available on our website.

Today, Dr. Allison and collaborators from Iowa State University and Central Life Science are sharing results regarding the detection of PEDV in manure pits for extended periods after disease outbreaks.

Key points:

Determining the origin of a PEDV re-infection at a farm is often difficult or inconclusive.
Manure pits have been shown to harbor virus after a farm has transitioned to a negative status.
PEDV DNA was found in farm manure pits between 46 and 1,949 days post disease outbreak.