Part 1, Section 2: Soil Fertility Management

Section 2 Table of Contents

Soil cores

Soil Fertility Management

MANURE NUTRIENT MANAGEMENT

Spreader calibration:

Method 1-Best for solid manure

Equipment required: a plastic sheet (6 ft x 6 ft or 10 ft x 10 ft), a scale (milk or bathroom scale), and a bucket.

Table 1.2-16. manure spreader rate calibration
  Manure, T/A
Manure on
sheet, lb		 Sheet size
6 ft x 6 ft		 Sheet size
10 ft x 10 ft
2 1.2 0.4
4 2.4 0.9
6 3.6 1.3
8 4.8 1.7
10 6.1 2.2
12 7.3 2.6
14 8.5 3.1
16 9.7 3.5
18 10.9 3.9
20 12.1 4.4
22 13.3 4.8
24 14.5 5.2
26 15.7 5.7
28 17.0 6.1
30 18.2 6.5
32 19.4 7.0
34 20.6 7.4
36 21.8 7.8
38 23.0 8.3
40 24.2 8.7
42 25.4 9.2
44 26.6 9.6
46 27.9 10.0
48 29.1 10.5
50 20.3 10.9
52 31.5 11.3
54 32.7 11.8
56 33.9 12.2
58 35.1 12.6
60 36.3 13.1
62 37.5 13.5
64 38.8 14.0
66 40.0 14.4
  1. Weigh the sheet with the bucket on the scale.

  2. Lay the sheet in the field where manure will be spread. Place the sheet at a distance from yourself great enough to put the spreader in gear and bring the load.

  3. Drive the tractor and spreader over the sheet

  4. Fold the sheet so that no manure is spilled. Put the sheet in the bucket and weigh both on the scale.

  5. Subtract the weight of the empty bucket and sheet in Step 1 from the weight of the sheet and bucket filled with manure. This number is the weight of the manure collected on the sheet.

  6. Repeat the procedure and determine an average for the weights.

  7. Taking into account the size of your sheet, use the average weight and Table 1.2-16 to determine the tons of manure applied per acre.

  8. If you are using a different-sized sheet, or if the amount of manure collected is not listed in the table, use the following formula to calculate tons per acre:

(lb manure × 21.8) ÷ sheet size (sq ft) = T manure/A