FG WESTERN MAIN
Georgia producers share poultry litter tips
Loretta Sorensen for Progressive Forage Grower
Georgia hay producers Ricky
Roper and Alan Verner are taking
advantage of the benefits of applying
poultry litter to their hayfields.
According to University of Georgia
researchers, poultry litter is
commonly used on north Georgia
pastures and hayfields. Casey W.
Ritz, professor and extension poultry
scientist at the University of Georgia,
says poultry litter is a complete
fertilizer that contains not just
primary nutrients but secondary and
micronutrients, too. Typical analysis
is about 3 to 2 to 2 (N to P2O5 to
K2O).
“Actual nutrient content depends
on the type of bird, what birds
are fed and how often the poultry
producer cleans the house,” Ritz says.
“Feed efficiency and how manure
is handled and stored also affect
nutrient content.”
Poultry litter is a beneficial
organic fertilizer in Georgia, where
heavy clay soils in the north and
sandy soils in the south benefit from
improved soil quality.
“Many south Georgia cotton
growers can’t get enough poultry
litter,” Ritz says. “It’s a very good
resource for fertilizer and soil
amendment.”
About 89 percent of poultry
litter nitrogen is in an organic form,
which means soil micro-organisms
must convert it to ammonium or
nitrate. Timing of the biological
conversion depends on soil moisture
and temperature. In moist, warm
conditions (above 50ºF), the largest
nitrogen release is likely to happen.
In cold, dry conditions, little or no
nitrogen is released. For pastures and
hayfields, slow nitrogen release can
make nitrogen available more evenly
over the growing season.
Some poultry litter nitrogen
is lost to the atmosphere through
volatilization, which is maximized
by hot, dry and windy conditions.
Farmers in our state sometimes haul
chicken litter as much as 200 miles
to apply it to row crops. That’s how
important the litter’s organic matter is
to soil quality.
Verner uses poultry litter to fertilize the rye and
bermudagrass crops he raises for forage.
”
Photo courtesy of Alan Verner.
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Applying poultry litter just prior
to rainfall can help incorporate
ammonium into soil through water
infiltration. High rainfall may cause
substantial poultry litter nutrient
loss through surface runoff. Leaching
can move nitrate below the root
zone.
Due to these processes, only about
50 percent of poultry litter nitrogen
per ton is available to plants during
the growing season. Since most of
the nitrogen not taken up by forages
is either lost to the environment or
stabilized as soil organic matter, very
little carryover can be expected the
second year after application.
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Issue 2 • February 1, 2016
FG WESTERN MAIN
My main recommendation is not to overdo use of the litter when you’re
starting. Start with a small area and observe results before expanding. It
definitely can help cut costs and build organic matter.
Poultry litter’s slow release and
conversion can be an advantage
to farmers unless an immediate
nitrogen flush is needed. For growers
in Georgia, poultry litter also helps
maintain soil pH, which means
farmers who need lime to improve
soil pH are likely to see extended
liming benefits.
Roper raises about 114,800
broilers each year. Verner contracts
with a poultry company annually to
raise some 50,000 egg-laying hens.
Across the state, Georgia’s
poultry industry produces some
1.3 billion broilers, 12 million
commercial laying hens, 11.8 million
broiler breeder hens and 12 million
replacement pullets each year. Litter
produced by the industry is valued at
more than $60 million per year.
Roper and Verner use litter from
their own poultry facilities, noting
that the manure’s organic matter is
one main benefit of the practice.
“Farmers in our state sometimes
haul chicken litter as much as 200
miles to apply it to row crops,”
Verner says. “That’s how important
the litter’s organic matter is to soil
quality.”
On his northeast Georgia
farm, Roper raises broilers, beef
cattle, some corn, alfalfa and hay.
Bermudagrass and fescue are
predominant in his hayfields. He
harvests an average of 4 to 6 tons of
bermudagrass and fescue per acre.
For the past 15 years, Roper’s
broilers have been housed in four
different facilities bedded with
sawdust on dirt floors. Each flock
walks on 3 to 4 inches of sawdust.
Each time a flock finishes, hard
manure “cake” is removed, and a
thin layer of shavings is added to the
composting bed.
Typically, Roper sells broilers in
October, clears all the litter from the
buildings and immediately applies
it to his fields. Using a standard
manure spreader, Roper distributes
between 4 and 5 tons of litter per
acre. Rather than test his litter every
year, he relies on soil samples to
indicate the need for adding any
commercial nutrients.
“The more flocks producing litter,
the more nutrient value it’s likely to
have,” Roper says. “If someone has
litter from just one or two flocks of
broilers, I wouldn’t be interested in it
because it probably contains a high
percentage of sawdust. I have had
litter from five or six flocks with very
balanced nitrogen, phosphorus and
potassium.”
After raising six to seven flocks
in his poultry facility (108,000 to
114,000 per flock), Roper’s litter
analysis runs 50 to 60 pounds on
NPK per ton. If the house is cleaned
after one or two flocks, litter nutrient
levels are lower. When the same type
of birds are fed the same feed ration
for the same period of time, and
poultry houses are cleaned out at the
same rate each year, poultry litter
analysis is likely to remain fairly
constant.
Poultry houses that sell litter are
required by law to provide a nutrient
analysis. For private growers like
Roper and Verner, analysis of litter
for their own use isn’t always feasible.
Samples can be taken prior to
distribution; however, poultry litter
quickly loses nutrients when exposed
to the elements and is typically
removed from the poultry house and
immediately applied.
For growers producing highquality hay, feathers within the litter
that don’t break down could cause
buyers to reject hay, making poultry
litter an unacceptable fertilizer
resource.
In Verner’s facility east of
Atlanta, he raises beef cattle,
operating an embryo transfer
program using predominantly
purebred Angus. His crops include
”
hay and baleage produced from both
ryegrass and bermudagrass. Per
cutting, he harvests an average of
2.5 tons of rye baleage (60 percent
moisture) and about 2 tons of
bermudagrass per acre.
Verner’s hens produce and hatch
fertilized eggs in a facility with a
suspended floor so chickens walk on
slats and manure drops down below
them. The flock is all-in, all-out once
each year.
“Once the hens go out, we hire a
crew, move the slats and remove all
manure using skid loaders,” Verner
says. “With a 20-foot spreader, we
immediately apply about 10 tons per
load on approximately 1,000 acres
that are all within a mile or less of
the poultry house. Our ryegrass is
usually planted between four and six
weeks before we apply the litter. That
all depends on weather conditions
for planting and manure application.”
At the same time he applies
litter, Verner utilizes an Aerway
aerator to incorporate it into the
soil. The aerator allows him to set
aerator tines to either barely or more
aggressively puncture the top 6
inches of soil.
“The aerator is a great tool to
Continued on page 14
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13
FG WESTERN MAIN
Georgia producers share poultry litter tips, cont’d from page 13
open up paths for the manure to
reach plant roots quickly,” Verner
says. “We have used it aggressively
in areas where compaction from
equipment or cattle were a concern.”
From time to time, both Verner
and Roper have struggled with
getting manure applied between
rains and wet field conditions.
Neither of them stockpile the
manure outside poultry facilities due
to litter’s volatile nature.
“We observe all the same
manure distribution regulations as
other livestock owners,” Roper says.
“There’s so much grassland in our
area that nutrient runoff isn’t really
an issue, but we don’t apply litter in
wet weather conditions.”
If he spreads litter on a pasture,
Roper prefers to keep his beef cattle
out of it until after a rain. However,
conditions sometimes require
that cattle return to the pasture
immediately following distribution.
He hasn’t seen any negative impact
from the practice.
Because grasses normally
require three or four times more
nitrogen than phosphorus, use of
litter – with almost equal amounts
of both – can result in phosphorus
buildup. That happens more slowly
on fields where hay is removed.
Since Roper and Verner usually
produce their own litter each year,
it’s a relatively low-cost fertilizer
source. However, both hire crews
to help clean facilities and spread
the nutrients, so the litter isn’t free.
Verner believes the litter’s organic
matter is especially valuable in
helping rebuild soils, which some
in his area refer to as “cottoned to
death.”
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“In the 1930s through the ’50s,
farmers didn’t have access to all the
best management practices we know
about today,” Verner says. “They
didn’t have no-till or information
about protecting soil quality. All
they had was terracing, which wasn’t
much help to keep soil from washing
away over the years. Poultry litter is
one of the products farmers here use
to help rebuild organic matter and
restore topsoil.”
Ritz points out that a flush
of weeds may take hold in a field
following the first few applications
of poultry litter. The reason for
vigorous weed growth is the
favorable growing conditions poultry
litter provides.
“Since poultry litter is a
complete fertilizer, it provides a
balanced environment for all plants,
including weeds,” Ritz says. “If
weed seeds lie dormant in the soil,
applying litter could stimulate weed
growth.”
While neither Verner nor Roper
has experienced problems with
high-nitrogen poultry litter that
burned crops, there is potential for it
to happen when the actual analysis
of litter is unknown. If fast-growing
crops take up excess nitrates from
grasses fertilized with poultry litter,
livestock could become ill or die as
a result. Verner recommends that
producers interested in using poultry
litter start small.
“Learn as much as you can about
poultry litter and see how it works
for your crops before large-scale
use,” Verner says. “Georgia row-crop
producers use it quite heavily, and
it’s readily available here. Once it’s
applied, they disk it in as soon as
possible to avoid losing nitrogen and
other nutrients to the atmosphere or
leaching.
“My main recommendation is
not to overdo use of the litter when
you’re starting,” Verner says. “Start
with a small area and observe results
before expanding. It definitely can
help cut costs and build organic
matter.” FG
Loretta Sorensen is a freelancer
based in South Dakota.
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Issue 2 • February 1, 2016