Gordon White, Hartney, MB

My name is Gordon White and I farm in the southwest part of Manitoba, near Hartney. For those from N.D. I’m located approximately 60 miles north of Bottineau.

My farm started out with some zero till in the early 80’s mainly with winter wheat and fall rye and soon the whole farm was no till. My standard practice has been to knife in most of my nitrogen in the fall and put the phosphate and other nutrients down the pipe with the seed in the spring.

Over the last two decades we have grown a variety of crops: spring + winter wheat’s, barley, HULLESS barley, flax, LINOLA, canola, peas, soybeans, fall rye, sunflowers, and canamaze. Most have done fairly well over the long term, but things have changed and to try and stay competitive in the cost of production I had to change something. My farm consisted of approximately 2000 acres of cropable land some of which is rented. To reduce my cost per acre there were some choices to be made. All of my land is close together running four miles north to south and two miles east to west. To expand my land mass and spread my cost over more acres is quite difficult as the land that has changed hands I feel is over priced in today’s market but may still be a good option if there wasn’t so much competition for the limited acres for sale or rent.

So I decided to look at other alternatives. A group of local farmers and area residents tried to salvage a closed elevator and turn it into a feed mill to add some value to our feed grains. This turned out to be unworkable because of the lack of guaranteed feed use. The group then started looking into attracting the livestock necessary to make the feedmill option viable. After much consultation and investigation our group invested with a Manitoba firm, Elite Swine. Through this investment we planned on building a 3,000 sow barn, four 2,500 head nursery barns and two 2,000 head quality control barns as well as contracting out the finishing barns. Through the siting of these barns, there were many sites looked at and investigated but only a few were suitable. I was able to find two sites on my land that were suitable for lagoons. This meant in order to acquire the barns I would be selling some land instead of expanding my land base. But I was confident it was in my best interest to due so.

On the north end of my farm I sold 80 acres of land for the construction of a 3,000 sow barn. The site takes up approximately 30 acres and I rent the remainder back . Out of this barn I receive approximately 700 acres of fertilizer annually and have 960 acres caviated for manure application.

On the south end of the farm I sold another 80 acres for two 2,000 head quality control finishing barns. Out of these I receive approximately 400 acres of fertilizer per year and have over a 1,000 acres caviated for manure application.

The money from the sale of the land helped make my investment in the barns.

Being that these barns have multiple owners the manure is not free. Based on my agreement with the barns I pay 60% of the nitrogen price for the manure and it’s applied to my land for that fee. In other words if nitrogen is worth .21 LB I would pay 12.5 cents a lb. for the nitrogen and application. The application method has been either by drag hose and cultivator with narrow spikes or tanker with cultivator and spikes with all the liquid being injected 3 to 4 inches into the soil. This method has been less than ideal for a notiller but workable. I am working at getting the applicator to change to either disk openers or an airway system that will make minimal disturbance.

In Manitoba if your barn size is over 400 animal units it must file and apply manure based on a manure management plan approved by Manitoba conservation.

This includes soil tests of proposed spread fields, cropping plans, and the testing of the manure prior to and during application using a nova meter. Samples are also taken during application and sent to labs for the exact results after completion. So at the time of application I know the amount of ammoniated nitrogen that is being applied per acre and after the lab results come back I know the amount of total nutrients that have been applied. The results out of the same barn year to year don’t vary a lot so you can apply fairly close and then verify with the lab results. The nutrient results are quite a bit different from a finisher barn as compared to a sow barn.

Here are the lab results from the two barns for the fall of 2001.

SOW BARN

nova meter at time of application 1.6

AS RECEIVED DRY BASE KG/1000 L

moisture % 99

EC ds/m 12.4

PH 8.01

ammonium-n mg/l 1390 141000 1.4

total nitrogen % 0.15 15.2 1.5

K2O % 0.1 12.1 1.2

P2O5 % 0.1 7.7 0.8

phosphorus % 0.033 3.37 0.33

potassium % 0.10 10.1 1.00

sodium % 0.031 3.13 0.31

FINISHING BARNS

nova meter at time of application 2.2

UNITS AS RECEIVED DRY BASIS KG/1000L

MOISTURE % 97.5

EC DS/M 17.9

AMMONIUM-N MG/L 2410 94700 2.4

TOTAL NITROGEN % 0.30 11.8 3.0

K20 % 0.2 6.1 1.5

P2O5 % 0.2 5.9 1.5

PHOSPHORUS % 0.066 2.58 0.66

POTASSIUM % 0.128 5.04 1.28

SODIUM % 0.041 1.62 0.41

There are also other nutrients and metals in the manure that are worth noting,

for example; copper at about 5 mg/L, sulfur at 55 mg/L, zinc at 10 mg/L plus a lot of other minerals and metals that my continual cropping has been depleting over the last 100 plus years that my land has been farmed.

So to convert this into something that you can understand, if I am going to grow 40+ bushel/acre crop of canola and my soil test comes back with 15 lb. of available N. I would be allowed to apply up to 110 lb. of nitrogen based on the crop requirements.

The applicators are told to apply 100 lb. of nitrogen on field A. The applicators test the manure with a nova meter and find for e.g. a reading of 1.5 then using their charts convert it into lb. of nitrogen / 1000 gallons and apply the appropriate gallonage per acre. Based on a 15 lb. of nitrogen in 1000 gal. and wanting to apply 100 lb. of N they would in turn apply a 6,666 gallons of slurry/ acre to the field.

Compared to another field done without manure

manure per/acre conventional per/acre

cost / lb. N 0.126/lb 0.21/lb

100 lb.. N 12.6 21.0

application 0.0 6.0

total $12.60 $27.0 depending on your

A saving of $14.40 cents/ acre application cost

Now add other properties found in the manure

organic N 2-3 lb. 0.0

water 6600 gal./acre 0.0

phosphorus 3 - 10 lb.. 0.0

copper .5 - 1 lb.. 0.0

organic matter yes no

As you can see there is a good savings per acre in costs not to mention some of the micro nutrients that you receive. There are also concerns over salt content and other things so you should get advice from soils professionals to help you decide what the limiting factors are or at least what to watch for in your annual soil tests. I have more available land than manure so usually a parcel of land will get manure every other or third year. I try to apply manure for the crops that are higher nitrogen users for two reasons. One - the applicators like to apply higher gallonage /acre as they cover less acres with their equipment and less time is spent. Two - I have more options on my method of applying the lesser amounts of N. on my other crops.

Over the past four years of trial and error, I have found that canola and sunflowers respond very well to manure. Wheat yields seem almost identical except that protein is higher with the manure likely due to the organic N. coming available later in the season.

The community side of these barns is also worth noting. The 3,000 sow barn employs 9 full time workers with an approximate payroll of $250,000 and uses 346,000 bushels of barley equivalent feed grain./year. The two finishing barns have 1.7 employees with an approximate payroll of $50,000 and uses 115,000 bushels of barley equivalent feed grain/year.

On my less than 2,000 acre farm, I can grow the same crop as before for $15,000 less and at the same time improve my soil and reduce my dependency on commercial fertilizer. Eventually I will be able to reduce my need for phosphate, and get my copper levels back to where they should be. With the savings on application costs and everything long term I would think the savings will be more in the $25 / acre range. Combine this with 11 jobs and $300,000 local payroll and over 450,000 bushels of feed grain use, I believe my small land base will have a large effect on the local economy.

I know you are wondering after four years does everyone in the group feel the same way. Well I can’t speak for the others but at this time our second 3,000 sow barn is nearing completion and will begin to be populated in March and this will add another 9 full time jobs in my area.

THANK YOU

GORDON J. WHITE .

BOX 361

HARTNEY MB. CA.

R0M 0X0