Ohio State University Extension has conducted liquid manure research on crops for more than 15 years in an effort to make better use of the manure nutrients. Applying manure to growing crops can boost yields, reduce nutrient losses and give livestock producers or commercial manure applicators another window of time to apply manure to farm fields in Ohio.

The chart shows the last five years of liquid manure sidedress research on corn plots at the Northwest Station of the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center. In these research plots, liquid swine and liquid dairy manure were used in preemergent and postemergent plots, and compared with incorporated 28% urea ammonium nitrate (UAN).

FERTILIZING: Corn is sidedressed with liquid beef manure.

The swine manure application rate was 5,000 gallons per acre, and the dairy manure application rate was 13,500 gallons per acre, plus 135 pounds per acre of UAN. All treatments received 200 pounds of nitrogen per acre each year.

In 2016, liquid beef manure was applied as a sidedress nitrogen source for corn for the first time in replicated research plots in Paulding, Fulton and Henry counties. Manure was applied with a 5,250-gallon tanker and incorporated with a Dietrich toolbar with sweeps and closing wheels. Manure was compared to 28% UAN in three of the plots and anhydrous ammonia in the fourth plot. Farm Credit Services provided funds to support this study.

Manure was applied when the corn was in the V1 to V3 stage, and treatments were replicated four times in each field. Field lengths were generally a quarter mile for each plot. Manure was applied to the Paulding County plot during the fourth week of May. The Fulton and Henry county plots were sidedressed in the second week of June. The application rate was between 5,000 and 6,000 gallons per acre, according to the nitrogen sidedress needs.

Liquid beef manure contains the macronutrients nitrogen, phosphorus and potash. The nitrogen is primarily in two forms —ammonium and organic. Ammonium N is readily available to a growing crop. Organic nitrogen has to undergo a mineralization process for a percentage of the nitrogen to eventually be released in the ammonium form. For sidedressing corn, ammonium nitrogen is considered to be almost immediately available to the crop and about one-third of the organic nitrogen becoming available for the corn crop during the corn growing season.

Rainfall during the grow season was sparse at two of the plots and more seasonal at the other two plots. Soil compaction was an issue, especially in Paulding County, and this likely reduced the manure treatment corn yields. The manure sidedress plots were harvested in October. Results showed manure produced similar yields to the 28% UAN in three of the four plots.

The results of these plots indicate that liquid beef manure can be used to sidedress corn as a replacement for commercially purchased fertilizer. The use of liquid manure to sidedress corn can provide a new window of time for manure application in Ohio and apply manure when the nutrients could be more fully used by a growing crop.

The long-range goal of Ohio State University Extension’s manure research is to utilize a drag hose to incorporate liquid manure of any species into corn up to the V4 stage. Three years of drag hose manure sidedress plots in Darke County indicate this manure application method has great potential.

Additional manure plot research information is available at agcrops.osu.edu.

Arnold is an OSU Extension field specialist for manure nutrient management systems. Also contributing to this story were Eric Richer, OSU Extension ag educator, Fulton County, and Sarah Noggle, OSU Extension ag educator, Paulding County.