Chicken litter as fertilizer

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In many of the central North Carolina counties, the soils are very high in Iron and Aluminimum; requiring high amounts of lime to nutralize the acidity. Many of these soils are very rocky and unsuitable for conventional row cropping. In the 1950s when commercial broiler production came to the area, it was a natural fit. Since chicken litter has a lot of unused phosphorus, it was adsorbed to the iron and aluminimum and did not pollute the streams. Grass flourished as did the farmers.

NC State did a good bit of research on the subject in the '80s and determined that if a farmer reduced his chemical fertilizer inputs by 60-70%, applying only those nutrients not in adequate amount in available manures and just what was needed for maximum AGRONOMIC production and in the form needed to get the crop off to a fast start, he could both reduce cost and increase yield while reducing environmental impact and improving soil quality. Alas, taxpayer research dollars are scarce and entities who give research grants want their points proved.

Because chicken litter was used on my farm for many years, I do not have to apply P or K, only lime and N.

I had a cow just freshen, I am going to try the milk program and see if it works for me.

Bill Dunlap

Ah - I must be a genus I have been growing a garden with chicken litterfor years..... Maybe just common sense eh!!!! Just think all thosesynthetic fertilizers are not necceary after all.. such a shame......Rocketscience/ brain surgeons here folks.http://worldpoultry.net/news/researcher-chicken-litter-in-cotton-production-7607.htmlResearcher: Chicken litter in cotton production//28 Jun 2010Chicken litter is much more valuable as a fertilizer than previouslythought, according to an Agricultural Research Service (ARS) study showingits newfound advantages over conventional fertilizers.Litter is a mixture of chicken manure and sawdust or other bedding material.Some cotton farmers in the Mississippi area are switching to chicken litterand away from standard inorganic, synthetic

fertilizers. Many other farmersare interested in the possible economic benefits of using chicken litter,but are reluctant to switch without the numbers to back up their decision,says the ARS.Now a study by ARS agronomist Haile Tewolde at the agency's Genetics andPrecision Agriculture Research Unit (GPARU) at Mississippi State, Miss., andcooperators has provided those numbers. Tewolde did the research with GPARUsoil scientist Ardeshir Adeli, 2 Mississippi State University colleagues,and Karamat Sistani, research leader at the ARS Animal Waste ManagementResearch Unit in Bowling Green, Ky.Previous studies only considered the economic value of the nitrogen,phosphorus and potassium in chicken litter, compared to that in syntheticfertilizers. Farmers know that chicken litter, an organic fertilizer, is abetter soil conditioner than synthetic fertilizers, but have never had a wayto assign a number

to the value of that benefit.In their study, Tewolde and colleagues figured the litter's value as a soilconditioner as an extra US$17/t litter. They calculated this by balancingthe price tag of the nutrients in litter with its resulting higher yields, areflection of its soil conditioning benefits.They found that cotton yields peaked 12% higher with organic fertilizers,compared to peak yields with synthetic fertilizers. With all benefitsfactored in, they found that chicken litter has a value of about US$78/t,compared to US$61/t when figured by the traditional method.The economic analyses also showed that farmers could further increase theirprofits by using less of either fertilizer than currently used for maximumyields, which is also good news for the environment.This research was published in the Agronomy Journal.Source: Agricultural Research Service[Non-text portions of

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