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Show CONSERVATION AGENT WARNS OF MANURE WASTE By Glen E. Murray Unil Conservationist The wasteful and inefficient methods of handling our farm manure are evidence that our farmers, not only in Beaver County but in practically all irrigated ir-rigated farming areas, do not appreciate its value, nor do they understand its .perishable nature; na-ture; otherwise they would take precautions to prevent unnecessary unneces-sary losses in storage and handling. han-dling. It is unfortunate that such a small percentage of the excrement from animals is actually actu-ally returned to the soil to benefit ben-efit crops. Farm manure is highly variable vari-able in its makeup and this variability in most cases is due to two factors: first, the amount of water contained in the manure ma-nure as it is applied to the fields; and second, the type of litter with which it is mixed. The .principal factor here in Beaver County however would be somewhat different from these two and that factor would be the variability due to methods meth-ods of handling. Tremendous losses due to improper handling can be seen almost anywhere you go out through the field at this time of year. Losses in the value of farm manure during handling operations opera-tions may include (1) direct losses due to improper handling losses due to lack of provisions for handling the liquid portions (2) losses due to leaching by spring run-off waters (3) nitrogen nitro-gen losses due to the fermentation fermen-tation and escape of ammonia gas (4) losses due to run-off water wat-er after the manure has been applied to the land. The first two sources of loss are very apparent ap-parent and can be readily controlled con-trolled with a few precautions and reasonable care. In order for us to realize the greatest value from our farm manure we should take special precautions to overcome these losses and make it a hard fast rule on our farms that manure is valuable and shall be handled so as to gain the most from it. The best procedure for handling manure is to allow it to accumulate accu-mulate in a compact pile until spring and then rapidly load and distribute it on the surface of the land and work it into the soil. Experimental results have shown quite conclusively that manure should be worked into the ground within a few hours after distribution. As a rule of thumb we should plow or disc manure into tire ground before the close of each day of d'stribution. (Glen E. Murray, Unit Conservationist Con-servationist with the Soil Conservation Con-servation Service with offices in Beaver, has recently been assigned to this county. Mr. Murray, originally from Meek-ier, Meek-ier, Colo., has been in Cedar City I for the past five years. I He attended school at Colo- rado State and Utah State Col-I Col-I leges, graduating from Utah j State in 1951, with a degree in agronomy (technical crops and soils. Mr. Murray is married and has one son). |