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Increased manure management research expected

January 11, 2010 – The
Manitoba Livestock Manure Management Initiative expects the number of research
projects that address the needs of multiple livestock groups to expand.


January 11, 2010 – The
Manitoba Livestock Manure Management Initiative expects the number of research
projects that address the needs of multiple livestock groups to expand.

The Manitoba Livestock Manure
Management Initiative was established to address environmental challenges
related to the hog industry but its mandate was recently expanded to include
all of the major livestock groups.

The initiative provides
base funding, which is matched by industry and other funding agencies, to
support manure related research.

Executive director Brandy
Street notes manure management pertains to all livestock groups and the
research needs of those groups often overlap.

“The type of research we
fund varies from year to year depending on the priorities that are set by our
stakeholders,” she said.

“How we do that is we
typically gather ideas from our main stakeholder groups, those being groups
from the agri-industry, government groups and academic,” Street explained.
“Once we've gathered those ideas, we hold an annual strategic planning meeting
at which representatives from these groups who sit on our board present the
ideas and the board as a group is able to prioritize them and put them into a
request for proposals that goes out to research groups in the industry and in
academic areas so that they can address the priority issues that have been
outlined.

“This year, our top
priority has been focused on phosphorus management practices and technologies
just because of the regulations that have been implemented by the Clean
Environment Commission but that’s not to say that we aren’t looking into other
areas.

“We're also looking at
other nutrients, such as nitrogen management and odor management is always a
contentious issue and of course feasibility and economics is important to
Manitoba producers so it's important that any applications that come in are
considering the economic feasibility of those technologies and practices.”

Street expects to see more
research projects addressing the manure management needs of multiple livestock
groups and more collaboration among those groups on projects in the future.