Processed Swine Manure – Composting and Center Pivot Application to Crops.

Animal waste management has been and continues to be a growing environmental issue. This project is designed to compare the use of liquid swine manure, separated liquid swine effluent collected from a solid-liquid separator, compost made from separated solids from liquid swine manure, and traditional inorganic fertilizer (control) as soil amendment for corn and soybean production. Manure solids are separated from effluent with the aid of a polymer material and gravity screens. The separated solids are composted with other materials, such as urban landscape waste. The remaining effluent is stored in holding tanks and subsequently irrigated on the experiment site. The field site (University Farm at Lexington, IL) has uniform soil (Chenoa-Drummer-Graymont Association), with 1 to 2% slope, good drainage, soil pH of 6, organic matter content of 4 to 5%, and good fertility.  A corn/soybean rotation will be employed, with soybean (Glycine max) grown at the site in 2007 and corn (Zea mays) in 2006 and 2008. Typical agronomic practices of Central Illinois grain producers will be utilized in this study.  To facilitate the use of center pivot irrigation each plot contains 16.2 hectares of land.  Four treatments were evaluated; processed liquid swine effluent, raw liquid swine manure, inorganic fertilizer nitrogen, two rates of compost made from separated solids of liquid swine manure, and zero rate control. At the completion of the experiment, equal variance t-tests will be used to compare treatments at the 5% significance level. A preliminary analysis of the 2006 and 2007 growing season data indicates that the four treatments responded in a similar fashion for measured plant and soil parameters. Thus, processing manure is a practical and environmentally safe way for swine producers to co-exist with increasing urban sprawl. These results need to be verified over a number of years to assess seasonal variability patterns.