Record Keeping for Fun & Profit Sub-title: Knowledge is Power Note to speaker: The goal of this presentation is to help producers decide that keeping records can be worth their time, but only if the records are complete and utilized. Of course, there is always the need for records to be in conformance with right to farm and for the “just in case” incident. Natalie Rector, MSUE, Winter 2004

Have you ever wondered? After manure is applied, how many nutrients did it supply to the field? How much fertilizer is still needed? Where are the soil tests on this field and how old are they? The employee who hauled manure quit. Do you know how much of the field or what area they spread on? Note to speaker: These are a series of questions to make the audience think about how useful keeping records might be to them. Here are supporting reasons for asking the questions: Just knowing the rate per acre is not good enough, you need to know how many nutrients it provided. And what the soil test is to know if you are in conformance with GAAMPS. When more than one person runs a farm, records can be a very important communications tool between family members as well as employees. Written records are better than relying on someone’s memory or decreases confusion and mis-communications.

Your brother says he is not going to sidedress any nitrogen on the corn this spring due to the manure. How comfortable are you with this decision? Right to Farm says to not over apply N in manure, how much is available from the last application? You got the manure tests back but how many gallons were applied to the field?

GAAMPs states to not apply more than 4 years of P2O5 for the next crop GAAMPs states to not apply more than 4 years of P2O5 for the next crop. How do you know if you are in conformance? The neighbors called in a complaint for manure in the ditch. Can you show that you did not apply any manure near that area? Can you show where you did apply manure? There is no way to know how much N and P is being applied to meet GAAMPs without either a good manure test or to use book values. Use MWPS –18-2000 if there are no manure tests available. Recommend building a base of manure tests over time rather than book values for determining spreading rates. Records are of value for neighborhood complaints and still serve a purpose for the “just in case” situations. That is why weather, application method and soil conditions are important to note in a record keeping system.

Records could be handy! Records could help answer the previous questions

Record keeping goals To be a better manager To decrease fertilizer costs To stay in conformance with GAAMPs Generally Accepted Agricultural and Management Practices or Right to Farm So will be afforded nuisance protection To cover yourself “just in case” To have peace of mind and more control There are and should be several reasons or goals for keeping records. Hopefully, if utilized, they will improve management. Often they will be able to decrease fertilizer costs, or at least, re-allocate lime and fertilizer dollars to higher priority areas. Often, lime and potash is needed more than N and P. Of course, just covering your behind is important in today’s world. But this can also bring a greater peace of mind because you just read a story or heard about your neighbor so you figure you better do something, but don’t know what. Record keeping can be a good first step.

What records to keep For GAAMPs conformance, by field Soil tests Date(s) of manure application(s) Rate of manure applied (gallons/tons) Previous crops Yields of past crops So if you decide to keep records or already are, are you keeping the right records? GAAMPs states to keep the following, by field. There is no format and they don’t have to be kept in one book, but you should have this information somewhere.

Records for a CNMP Date(s) of manure/wastewater applications(s) Source, rate and form of manure/wastewater applied Date and rates(s) and form of other nutrients applied (fertilizers, sludge, compost, etc.) Date(s) of incorporation where applicable Method of applications (surface applied, injected, irrigated, etc.) Acres and area of field nutrients applied Weather conditions during manure applications Field conditions during application of manure If you are pursing a CNMP (comprehensive Nutrient Management plan) because you are either a CAFO, want EQIP funds or just want to, these are the records required. Again, the record keeping system doesn’t have to be fancy, you just need the data.

To encourage record keeping, Take the focus off “covering yourself” and place more emphasis on how records can be helpful Only helpful if have the right information And if you utilize the information Lets try to take the focus off keeping records cause big brother says to and think about how they might be useful. Thinking about how you might use the records will also create more sense about what records are useful. So what’s the right info and how do we utilize the data?

Do you have the information? What is the date on your soil tests >3 years old, take new Do you have ALL fields tested? Is manure going on high testing fields? And are you buying fertilizer for low testing? Are you applying starter fertilizer containing phosphorus to fields with high P levels? Are your fertilizer recommendations comparable to MSU’s? Are yield goals reasonable? Need records for many of these items These would also be some of the items that an MDA inspector might be asking you about if you did have a complaint.

Soils testing over 80 lbs. of Bray P1 per acre will not respond to additional phosphorus fertilizers for a high yielding corn crop. Won’t know or cannot make decisions to reduce fertilizer without current soil tests A typical situation on livestock farms is that the fields close to the barns have very high tests and fields farther away actually call for P fertilizer. It is generally easy to tell which soil test is from a field by the barns just by looking at the P levels. Two options: keep loading the high fields with manure and buying fertilizer for the lower testing fields, or haul manure to the lower fields and save money on fertilizer

Nitrogen can be reduced on many fields Savings of $20 to $40 per acre = $$$$ Need manure tests to accurately calculate potential available N Weather, timing, incorporation and rate information a must Spring applied, injected manure can be a huge supplier of readily available nitrogen to the corn crop. A manure test can be used to estimate the N but a PSNT and experience is the safest way to approach managing N without yield loss and to find if potentially excessive rates are being applied. Weather, rate, timing, application method and source of manure play a big and variable part in how much N will be available. 100 lbs. of available N is not uncommon and adds up to big savings on fertilizer. Due to concern for yield loss, you don’t want to reduce fertilizer where it is actually needed.

To know the nutrients Need to know From which storage Weight of each load and how much a load covers Calculate amount per acre With manure test, calculate nutrients per acre Acres covered What time of year Injected, broadcast, etc If records are going to be useful, you need to know all of these items

How can records be useful? 1111 1111 1111 111 = 18 loads of manure Records show that this covered 10 acres. Know each load is 2800 gallons. 18 loads x 2800 gallons = 50,400 gallons Divided by 10 acres = 5,040 gallons/acre Simple records can be very useful. Hash marks on a sheet of paper can tell how many loads were hauled. Then, use this to find out two other important items: Volume per acre applied and nutrients per acre applied.

5,040 gallons per acre is how much N-P2O5-K2O? Need a manure test Should include both Total N and Ammonium for better estimates of available nitrogen to crop Knowing the weather conditions, application method and the time of year spread will impact amount of plant available nitrogen during growing season. Now will you feel more comfortable when your brother doesn’t sidedress any N this spring?

How confident are you in the weight/volume of a solid spreader? For different consistencies of manure? Weigh a load to be sure At a farm tour, they ask producers to guess the weight of a manure spreader. The range of guesses was very broad!

Calibration is critical: many chances for error Acres covered, amount in the spreader, content of the manure??? Use several methods to double check rate/acre Measure volume hauled from pit Weigh loads Measure area covered with one load Be mindful of overlaps & skips in determining rate The rate per acre issue is probably one of the greatest areas for error and yet the most important to knowing many of the items necessary for GAAMPs and for good agronomic management. This is also an area where assumptions need to be turned into fact or at least validated. If you go around assuming that 5000 gallons is being applied, when it isn’t, all of your other assumptions are off too. It is always good to use several methods to double check the rate per acre. Measure the length and width that one load covers in a field is a check on the acres of the field. Weighing the load checks the accuracy of the spreader, especially for different consistencies of manure. Measuring the pit, full and after hauling, can compute the cubic feet hauled, which when compared to how many loads were hauled, double checks the spreader capacity. Skips and overlap patterns in a field greatly impact total rate per acre and improvements in this area can improve the utilization of the manure for consistent fertilizer value to the crop. The goal is to know the rate of nutrients per acre, not just the amount of manure per acre.

Record Keeping Does not have to be fancy. Does need specific information if the data is to be useful. If cannot calculate the nutrients per acre then the records are not complete. If cannot document applications for a right to farm complaint, they are not complete.

Here might be a fairly typical record sheet Here might be a fairly typical record sheet. Actually, the producer does know what this means, but the information in memory to support this fades fast. And how easy will it be to know the rate of nutrients per acre? There is no date or weather data for GAAMPs.

Records Utilize existing resources or customize them If employees are hauling manure, agree on a format Consistent names of fields Pocket size notebooks Single pages Available at www.maeap.org in Microsoft Word format that can be customized MSU has worked to help develop several record keeping sheets that producers may find useful. You can make up your own system, alter these sheets, etc. But the goal is to keep the necessary information. One of the biggest needs comes down to communications; everyone hauling manure and planning fertilizer recommendations needs to call the fields by the same name. And you need to know what type of manure was hauled and if the whole field was covered.

Here is a pocket size notebook that is available at any of the groups listed; Provided courtesy of: Greenstone, MSU Extension, Michigan Farm Bureau, Michigan Milk Producers and Pork Producers.

In Excel, can be modified to suit your farm. Available at www. maeap In Excel, can be modified to suit your farm. Available at www.maeap.org/cnmp.htm Here is a spread sheet (it doesn’t calculate anything! Just Excell was used as a way to format it) Pull this off the web, use as is or modify to meet your needs.

Available in Word format at www.maeap.org/cnmp.htm Here’s another sheet, more for a daily haul situation. Also available over the web

Here’s the same sheet, customized for a specific farm Here’s the same sheet, customized for a specific farm. This farm had five different manure spreaders so if they were ever going to figure out the rate per acre, he needed to know which spreader was used and how many loads. There were also 7 different manure sources, so these sheets were put in a notebook with a divider tab for each manure storage. Due to different beddings, sometimes the manure consistency changed. All these options were customized to fit this farm so the employees only had to circle the right choice. (this also decreases trying to read handwritten notes with a dull pencil in the tractor cab!) Customize with your specific farm info for employees to circle options.

Available in Spanish at www.maeap.org/cnmp.htm And here is a version in Spanish. Available in Spanish at www.maeap.org/cnmp.htm

Any records are better than none, but good records are invaluable.