Monday 31 March 2014
Sunday 30 March 2014
Manure storage and getting through the winter.
livestock farms under the NPDES permit system are required to have manure storage systems emptied down to the point of having 6 months of available storage sometime between the November 1 and December 31. This available volume also has to include freeboard and expected precipitation. The storage does not have to be empty, just emptied down enough to have the estimated 6 months of storage, which may mean being empty for some farms.
The concept is good advice for all livestock farms but calendar dates do not provide any promise the weather will cooperate. But the requirement does reduce the need to spread manure during the winter. In general, winter manure is surface applied and surface applications during the winter are vulnerable to random weather conditions; the worst being rain on frozen ground or snow melting so fast that runoff occurs before the ground can thaw and take in the moisture and manure. Winter applications not only have to be concerned with the weather and soil conditions the day of spreading and several days after, but also several months later when thaw occurs.
One way to reduce the risks of manure applications is to avoid winter application. And one way to achieve that is to have manure storage systems emptied down in the fall to the point of having the storage capacity to get through till spring without having to haul manure.
The rain and snow events that have already occurred this fall have made have made empting manure storages very challenging to say the least. Given the wet field conditions across the state there will not be many spreading days left until winter sets in. Those farms needing to haul additional manure before spring do have options.
It is still legal to winter spread manure in Michigan, as long as it does not reach waters of the state via runoff, rain or snowmelt any time after application. Permitted farms are required to utilize the manure application risk indicator (MARI) to determine which fields are acceptable for winter spreading and which ones to avoid. This spreadsheet can be helpful to any size farm and can be found at www.maeap.org and search for MARI. This spreadsheet helps you look at soil type, slope, rate of manure, distance to waters and other factors that are important in estimating and reducing the risk of manure running off in the winter.
Research at the University of Wisconsin has shown that fall applications, ahead of winter snow events, are generally safer for water quality than manure applied in the winter months, and especially manure applied onto snow covered fields. For a recorded webcast on their research, visit http://www.extension.org/pages/60034/spreading-manure-in-winter-what-are-the-risks.
Brown Mang
The concept is good advice for all livestock farms but calendar dates do not provide any promise the weather will cooperate. But the requirement does reduce the need to spread manure during the winter. In general, winter manure is surface applied and surface applications during the winter are vulnerable to random weather conditions; the worst being rain on frozen ground or snow melting so fast that runoff occurs before the ground can thaw and take in the moisture and manure. Winter applications not only have to be concerned with the weather and soil conditions the day of spreading and several days after, but also several months later when thaw occurs.
One way to reduce the risks of manure applications is to avoid winter application. And one way to achieve that is to have manure storage systems emptied down in the fall to the point of having the storage capacity to get through till spring without having to haul manure.
The rain and snow events that have already occurred this fall have made have made empting manure storages very challenging to say the least. Given the wet field conditions across the state there will not be many spreading days left until winter sets in. Those farms needing to haul additional manure before spring do have options.
It is still legal to winter spread manure in Michigan, as long as it does not reach waters of the state via runoff, rain or snowmelt any time after application. Permitted farms are required to utilize the manure application risk indicator (MARI) to determine which fields are acceptable for winter spreading and which ones to avoid. This spreadsheet can be helpful to any size farm and can be found at www.maeap.org and search for MARI. This spreadsheet helps you look at soil type, slope, rate of manure, distance to waters and other factors that are important in estimating and reducing the risk of manure running off in the winter.
Research at the University of Wisconsin has shown that fall applications, ahead of winter snow events, are generally safer for water quality than manure applied in the winter months, and especially manure applied onto snow covered fields. For a recorded webcast on their research, visit http://www.extension.org/pages/60034/spreading-manure-in-winter-what-are-the-risks.
Brown Mang
Observation of calcium in canola meal in pig diets
When formulating diets for pigs, it is more accurate to use values for standardized or true nutrient digestibility than values for apparent nutrient digestibility because the former are additive in mixed diets.
Research at the University of Illinois is helping to determine the true digestibility of calcium in swine diets. Hans Stein, a professor of animal sciences at the U of I, led the team that conducted the study.
Research at the University of Illinois is helping to determine the true digestibility of calcium in swine diets. Hans Stein, a professor of animal sciences at the U of I, led the team that conducted the study.
Thursday 27 March 2014
Tuesday 25 March 2014
Commission proposes new organic farming rules
The European Commission today (25 March) unveiled plans to improve organic food production and the labelling of organic products. But there are concerns that the proposal does not go far enough to boost a sector that has quadrupled in size in the past ten years.
Saturday 22 March 2014
The answer to food poverty does not lie in making foods cheaper.... Take time to read this
A specialist in food ethics at Harper Adams University has warned that in order to sustainably feed a growing population into the future, the days of cheap food must draw to a close.
Increases in the number of people who experience food poverty and regularly go without food could be said to be a result of welfare reforms being enacted during the current recession. But Ralph Early, Head of the
Increases in the number of people who experience food poverty and regularly go without food could be said to be a result of welfare reforms being enacted during the current recession. But Ralph Early, Head of the
Monday 17 March 2014
Breeding leads to increased control of crop diseases.
The description of the activity sounds like a project from a doctorate-level biotechnology course — and it could be and probably was for some of the researchers at Monsanto studying not just plants, but seeds and their genes and chromosomes.
The science behind urban farming at Selovita.
The road to Selovita on Metro Parkway in Fort Myers was filled with different types of industrial businesses -- millworkers, electrical suppliers, granite distributors, and pavers -- making it the last place anyone would expect to find an urban farm.
Sunday 16 March 2014
Saturday 15 March 2014
New maize map to aid plant breeding efforts
In a massive survey of genetic diversity in maize, also known as corn, researchers across the United States, have developed a gene map that should pave the way to significant improvements in a plant that is a major source of food, fuel, animal feed and fiber around the world.
Thursday 13 March 2014
Vote for my blog; ISSUES IN SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURAL GROWTH for the #YoBloCo Awards 2014.
Link to vote for TWO BLOGS which includes mine is .http://www.yobloco.info/submission?filter=individual
YoBloCo Awards
Vote for my blog; ISSUES IN SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURAL GROWTH for the #YoBloCo Awards 2014. link to vote for TWO blogs;http://www.yobloco.info/submission?filter=individual
Wednesday 12 March 2014
Farmers’ returns on investment to continue diminishing
Ministry of Agriculture Principal Secretary Dr Robert Thwala said the sad part would be that they would sell off the meagre physical assets they owned.
He said the farmers would fail to feed their own families and worse still, the ageing farming generation had failed to attract the youth into the sector as farming had become the business of the poor who depended on hand-outs.
He said the farmers would fail to feed their own families and worse still, the ageing farming generation had failed to attract the youth into the sector as farming had become the business of the poor who depended on hand-outs.
Monday 10 March 2014
Affordable Care Act impacts farming families
Farm families, as small business owners, often need to purchase health insurance coverage for themselves. They also often manage employees and need to make decisions about what they will offer as healthcare coverage.
Creation and Improvement Of Economy Through Livestock Farming.
Awareness on creation of rural economy through livestock farming was jointly organized by Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) for North East Region, Research complex Jharnapani and All India Coordinated Research Project on Pig (AICRP-Pig), Nagaland University School of Agricultural Science and Rural Development (NU-SASRD), Medziphema Campus on Thursday at ICAR for NEH Region. The scheme is funded by Tribal Sub-plan. Seventeen farmers participated from Kohima District.
How African Agricultural Yields can be Boosted.
For tens of millions of people in rural Africa, life has gotten harder in recent years. Reliant on erratic rains, working exhausted soil and hobbled by decades of underinvestment and neglect, many have sunk deeper into poverty as agriculture — the mainstay of the region's economy — continues to face neglect. A growing number of African governments and UN and non-governmental agencies argue that unless urgent efforts are made to raise crop yields, build transportation and marketing systems and adopt modern, sustainable farming methods, the continent will fail to reach its development goals and the rural majority will reap only meagre harvests.
Tuesday 4 March 2014
Poor forage quality requires solid nutrition management
Concerned with forage quality, particularly over late-made first cutting hay, an Ohio State University Extension specialist said farmers need to diligently manage livestock nutrition needs this fall and winter.
"We have pretty good forage quantity, but what is going to hurt us is the quality," said Rory Lewandowski, an educator with the Extension Beef Team. "Most of southeastern Ohio is going to be in that situation, because we had decent amounts of hay in terms of tonnage, but the quality, especially of that first cutting, is going to present a problem."
Lewandowski said some producers reported making more hay in terms of overall tonnage than in recent memory, but that most were uniformly late getting into fields because of the overly wet spring across most of Ohio.
"We have pretty good forage quantity, but what is going to hurt us is the quality," said Rory Lewandowski, an educator with the Extension Beef Team. "Most of southeastern Ohio is going to be in that situation, because we had decent amounts of hay in terms of tonnage, but the quality, especially of that first cutting, is going to present a problem."
Lewandowski said some producers reported making more hay in terms of overall tonnage than in recent memory, but that most were uniformly late getting into fields because of the overly wet spring across most of Ohio.
Monday 3 March 2014
Livestock beating pandas to the bamboo buffet
Pandas, it turns out, aren't celebrating the Year of the Horse.
Livestock, particularly horses, have been identified as a significant threat to panda survival. The reason: They're beating the pandas to the bamboo buffet. A paper by Michigan State University panda habitat experts published in this week's Journal for Nature Conservation explores an oft-hidden yet significant conflict in conservation.
Livestock, particularly horses, have been identified as a significant threat to panda survival. The reason: They're beating the pandas to the bamboo buffet. A paper by Michigan State University panda habitat experts published in this week's Journal for Nature Conservation explores an oft-hidden yet significant conflict in conservation.
Sunday 2 March 2014
Herbicides may not be sole cause of declining plant diversity
The increasing use of chemical herbicides is often blamed for the declining plant biodiversity in farms. However, other factors beyond herbicide exposure may be more important to species diversity, according to Penn State researchers.
If herbicides are a key factor in the declining diversity, then thriving species would be more tolerant to widely used herbicides than rare or declining species, according to J. Franklin Egan,research ecologist, USDA-Agricultural Research Service.
If herbicides are a key factor in the declining diversity, then thriving species would be more tolerant to widely used herbicides than rare or declining species, according to J. Franklin Egan,research ecologist, USDA-Agricultural Research Service.
Coral fish biodiversity loss: Humankind could be responsible.
Literal biodiversity reservoirs, coral reefs and associated ecosystems are in grave danger from natural and human-made disturbances. The latest World Resources Institute assessment is alarming with 75% of coral reefs reported as endangered worldwide, a figure that may reach 100% by 2050. The numbers are concerning, particularly as coral reefs provide sustenance and economic benefits for many developing countries and fish biodiversity on coral reefs partly determines the biomass available for human consumption.
Competition breeds new fish species, study finds
Competition may play an important role during the evolution of new species, but empirical evidence for this is scarce, despite being implicit in Charles Darwin's work and support from theoretical studies.
Dr Martin Genner from Bristol's School of Biological Sciences and colleagues used population genetics and experimental evidence to demonstrate a role for competition that leads to the differentiation of new species within the highly diverse cichlid fishes of Lake Tanganyika in East Africa.
Dr Martin Genner from Bristol's School of Biological Sciences and colleagues used population genetics and experimental evidence to demonstrate a role for competition that leads to the differentiation of new species within the highly diverse cichlid fishes of Lake Tanganyika in East Africa.
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