Maine, Michigan and Iowa research uses of manure

ORONO – What do Maine’s dairy and potato farms have in common with hog farms and corn producers in Michigan and Iowa?

Poop.

Managing manure from large animal operations in a way that augments the soil conditions for potato and corn farmers is the subject of a three-year, $2 million research grant in which Maine, Michigan and Iowa are participating.

Stewart Smith, former Maine Commissioner of Agriculture and now professor of sustainable agriculture at the University of Maine, is administering the grant. “We would like to see manure used as an economic positive, rather than a negative,” he said.

The research, he explained this week, will take a close look at the relationship between specialized farms and how they best can serve each other, which appears to mean rotating land and sharing manure.

“For the past 50 years, farms have become increasingly specialized,” said Smith. “Farms now tend to produce just one or two products for market. In Aroostook County, it’s potatoes. In central Maine, it’s dairy. There are certain efficiencies to specialization, such as easier farm management,” said Smith, “but such farmers also pay a penalty, depleting the soil or having an incredible amount of concentrated manure to deal with.”

By getting different farmers to share farming methods and integrate livestock and cropping systems, farms can become more productive and efficient.

Smith said many small, sustainable farms are already practicing integrated farming. “It’s run as a biological system and a highly beneficial cycle is created.”

Smith said an excellent example of integrated farming is being operated by Bob Fogler, a diary farmer, and John Dorman, a potato producer, who live next door to each other in Exeter. Fogler, whose 500 cows are in confined feeding housing, “ships the poop to John, who spreads it on his cropland, sustaining and enriching the land,” said Smith. “It’s a perfect back-and-forth arrangement. The result is that they don’t have to buy as much fertilizer or apply as much pesticide because they get these services from the systems they use on the farm.”

The Dorman-Fogler arrangement began with Fogler simply using some of Dorman’s land to spread manure on. “As things evolved,” said Fogler, “we started swapping ground, sharing labor and sharing equipment. It just evolved to that because it made economic sense to do so.”

In reports back to the university, Dorman said because of the arrangement he has been able to decrease commercial fertilizer and chemicals, while improving the soil quality. His farm has grown from 200 acres of potatoes to 400 acres in spud, corn and barley production. “I think there is magic in what we’ve been able to do with our soil,” said Dorman.

Smith said that the integrated system might be viewed as a return to the way that farms were run in the past, but that would not be correct. “New technologies based on science have given farmers new tools,” said Smith. “With what we know today, integrated farms can be as efficient as their industrial counterparts.”

The research project will study aspects of integrated farms in all three states. Working groups of farmers will be organized in each state to help evaluate the performance of such production systems.

“We will be looking at factors such as profitability, marketing and impacts on rural communities and ecosystems,” said Smith. “We want to know what triggers farmers to adopt the approaches they use, whether it’s financial, the complexity of farming systems or willingness to take risks.”

In Maine, soil and water will be studied. In Iowa, researchers will look at the impact on entire watersheds. Researchers in Michigan will focus on changes field by field.

Smith said it is a quite an accomplishment to have Maine administering the competitive grant. “It puts Maine in the forefront of a USDA program, where Maine is not usually found,” he said.