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Manitoba manure initiative winding down

December 14, 2017, Winnipeg, Man – Effective March 2018, the Manitoba Livestock Manure Management Initiative (MLMMI) will disband and its activities will be rolled into a more broadly mandated provincial research organization created under the new federal-provincial Canadian Agricultural Partnership.

John Carney, executive director of the MLMMI, said work over the past almost 20 years has included odor mitigation, odor measurement and quantification, nutrient management including manure separation and manure nutrients in crops, the feasibility of a manure pipeline to transport manure, pathogens in manure and barn worker health and safety.

“Certainly, there’s been quite a bit of work done in odor management,” he said. “We have a model that is very helpful for predicting odor plumes and there’s actually some refinements going on with that as we speak.”

“We fully investigated five different technologies for manure separation as part of redistributing nutrients from areas that don’t have enough spreadable acres.We looked at alternatives and costs of manure transportation.”

“I think it’s important to note too that we don’t just consider our success when we find something that works,” Carney added. “When we find that it’s not the answer, I think that’s just as valuable as when you find something that is what you hoped it would be.”

“Our research has the capabilities of saving a lot of producers the time, money and frustration of implementing technologies or strategies that it turns out don’t work in Manitoba conditions.”

According to Carney, under the new program, this research will be broadened to cover all forms agriculture.

He said there continues to be opportunities for Manitoba to produce more livestock so manure research will continue to be an important focus.