Poultry litter application detailed at seminar

By LORI COPE | East Texas Edition

February 5, 2004 -- About 300 persons got the "scoop" on poultry litter during the Jan. 22 management seminar, hosted by Carraway Tractor, in Sulphur Springs.

Information presenters shared their expertise on environmental quality issues, litter content and application accuracy, and use of poultry litter as fertilizer.

Leading off the seminar's presentations, Pat Pilgrim, senior vice president of Pilgrim's Pride Industries, relayed a story that targeted growers' and poultry litter users' need to be "aware of your surroundings. ... In today's society, regulations, laws, and the neighbors we deal with ... gets stickier by the month."

Pilgrim began, "I'm going to share with you an experience I had one time, about 15 years ago" that involved removing a house to clear room for parking near the business' feed mill in downtown Pittsburg.

The experience, which Pilgrim told as a humorous story, involved the use of dynamite to remove the old house, after he and his "cronies" discovered the solid-built structure wouldn't budge under pressure from a bulldozer.

In a series of three explosions, the house came down all right, but so did a lot of other nearby fixtures; and the force knocked out store-front windows in the downtown area, Pilgrim related.

"The moral to this story is: Don't put too much, and tell your neighbor when you're going to do it," Pilgrim said in relation to his experience, and applying litter to pastures.

When applying poultry litter to the soil as fertilizer, Dr. Sam Feagley, Texas A&M University professor and state soil environmental specialist, pointed out the need to manage the nutrients within the litter. Feagley presented a photo of an algal bloom in a slow-moving Coastal Plain stream, which had become choked with a green scum. The problem had been caused by excessive inputs of nitrogen and phosphorus, two highly-concentrated nutrients in poultry litter.

Feagley pointed out two main issues producers should consider when applying poultry litter as fertilizer: know what's in it; and how much is being applied.

"Having a historic analysis of the litter is important," he said, "so you'll know what's in the litter." Chicken growers who have a Water Quality Management Plan in place at their operation should have the analysis ready to show the litter buyer. If the grower does not have to file such a plan, and an analysis is not available, then a sample of the litter should be sent to a lab for analysis.

Feagley also said it is important for the litter spreader to be properly calibrated.

"I often find when I got out to help someone calibrate their spreader, they aren't putting out the amount they think they are," the specialist related. "And, that can go both directions" - either too much, or too little, is applied.

To help calibrate a spreader's output, Feagley suggested a method using plastic tarps (since plastic will not absorb any of the litter's moisture and vary the outcome). Several tarps will be needed to complete the calibration project. To begin, cut a four-foot by eight-inch portion from the soil and put it on each tarp. Weigh each tarp with the soil with a simple weighing device, such as fish scales, he suggested. Then place the tarps (two on each side) alongside the truck at the outer edge of the wheels, and one tarp under the spreader. Apply the litter in the short distance of the tarps' length, then re-weigh each tarp.

"For every pound added (to the original weight), is one ton per acre," Feagley said.

The advantages, and disadvantages, for applying poultry litter as fertilizer were addressed by Dr. Gerald Evers, an Overton-based forage physiologist and researcher with the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station.

"It's a more complete fertilizer," Evers began on the advantages. "It contains other important nutrients, other than just nitrogen, phosphorous, and potash, ... but also micronutrients."

The litter also contains lots of calcium which "raises the soil's pH; it's like a liming affect," Evers pointed out.

"And, manure, whether cattle or poultry, is high in organic matter. As the organic matter increases, soil quality improves." The organic matter increases the soil's capability of holding water and nutrients.

Importantly, for the pocketbook, poultry litter as a fertilizer is economical. Evers cited statistics from a survey that shows, on average, poultry litter has 62 pounds of nitrogen, 59 pounds of phosphorous, and 40 pounds of potassium, per ton. "Two-thirds of the nitrogen in litter is available in the soil the first year (of application)," he added. About 20 to 25 percent of the nitrogen is loss to the air through volitilization and about 10 percent of the nitrogen is not availble until after the first year. So basically, poultry litter as fertilizer provides more nutrients for the buck.

Of course, there are some disadvantages to using the product. The litter's content is variable, "so you don't always know what you are getting," Evers said. The need for analysis (as mentioned by Feagley) is important.

Another problem that can occur with poultry litter application is the build up of phosphorous in the soil. "If only broiler litter is used to fertilize pastures, phosphorous will be up in the soil each year and then we can have environmental problems," he said. With a heavy rain, the nutrient will runoff into the nearby creeks and rivers. This will increase plant growth, which in turn takes up oxygen when it decays, and can produce a fish kill. Plus, the excessive phosphorous will make the water taste bad.

Evers pointed out poultry litter is applied at a higher rate (two to four tons per acre) than commercial fertilizer (200 to 500 pounds per acre). The higher application rate add costs for transporting the litter to the field, if it's a long way from the source.

Also, Evers said the way to "overcome the phosphorous build up is to use litter in combination with nitrogen" applications on the pastures. He suggested if a producer uses poultry litter on a field in the spring, then "they should come back with an application of commercial nitrogen fertilizer. ... The plants pull excess phosphorous out of the soil with each nitrogen application."

Finally, Evers said there is an odor problem with poultry litter application. "You don't want to put it out near houses, unless you have their okay," he said. The smell, though, will diminish after a rain.

"The bottom line about using poultry litter is it is a good fit for the pastures in East Texas. It helps our soils with low fertility, low organic matter, and our soils that are acid."

At the conclusion of the seminar, a $500 door prize, which can be used towards the purchase of equipment from Carraway Tractor, was won by Shane Nichols of Winnsboro.