Canadian growers utilising swine manure

Canadian grain and oilseed growers are cutting their production costs by using swine, and other livestock manure, to displace some of the commercial fertilizer normally applied to boost crop quality and yield.

With strong prices for most crops, growers are anxious to maximize yields. With the price of commercial fertilizer drastically rising, growers are looking more favourably at using the nutrients contained in swine manure.

Nutrients
Bruce Dalgarno, who runs a grain and oilseed operation near Newdale, Manitoba, accesses liquid hog manure from a sow barn located on land adjacent to his. The sow barn operator covers the cost of hiring a custom applicator to apply the manure to land owned according to the nutrient requirements of the crops to be planted.

Livestock and Crop Partnerships
Dalgarno considers the use of manure to fertilize crops to be a win win for the grain farmer and for the hog farmer. The hog producer is selling his weanlings out of the one end of the barn and he has another product, manure, coming out of the other end.

Related website
MLMMI

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