Pig manure fertilizer improves soil quality
A Randolph, Manitoba based pig and grain operation reports substantial improvements in the quality of the soil over the past ten years by replacing commercial fertilizer with pig manure fertilizer.
Since 1994 Henervic Farms has expanded the swine side of its operation from just over 300 sows to approximately 35 hundred sows and it now produces about 80 thousand pigs per year. During the growth, the farm has moved almost exclusively to using pig manure to fertilize its crops.
Rise in organic matter
The tilth of the soil, where our organic matter has risen about one and a half points from 3.3 to five parts of organic matter in the past years seems to really make a big difference even how it absorbs water and those kinds of things and its tilling ability and it’s been very good for it.
Not cheap
Peters admits it’s not cheap to pump manure, especially when you start moving it long distances so, if everything is less than a mile, manure is probably less expensive than commercial fertilizer but, when you start pumping it three or four miles, it costs more. However he notes, if you want to raise pigs, you’ll still have the manure and without the land it would cost to get rid of it.
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