MU Researchers Evaluating Pig Manure as Corn Fertilizer

By Jana Rose Schleis

Corn, one of the most common crops grown in the Midwest, requires a lot of fertilizer, which can have environmental consequences.

The University of Missouri and its research partners are now studying the effectiveness of pig manure as corn fertilizer and preliminary results look promising.

“We're trying to look at how do we better utilize or recycle the swine manure, and then tying it to the important factors of the crop yield and the soil health,” said MU Extension agriculture engineer Teng Lim.

Five acres of corn at the MU Bradford Research Farm in Columbia were given a boost this growing season by the addition of either pig manure, chemical fertilizer or a combination of the two.

Lim said the amount of corn produced was comparable across all three options, with slightly higher output for the plot fertilized with pig manure. The plots treated with chemical fertilizer yielded 150 bushels an acre while the plots treated with only pig manure yielded 170 bushels per acre.

“We are surprised to see that there was basically no significant difference between all three,” Lim said.

If pig manure is proven as effective as chemical fertilizers at growing corn, it could decrease farmer dependence on environmentally damaging and costly chemical fertilizers.

This was the first harvest season the study was performed in Columbia. Lim says MU researchers will replicate the experience in the coming years.

The five-year project is a collaboration among multiple pork-producing states throughout the Midwest, including South Dakota, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan, Nebraska and more. The research is funded by the National Pork Board.

Lim and his partners will also be analyzing the impact each fertilizer has on soil health.

“We want to know what is the long-term effects of the swine manure on to the corn yield and the soil health, because there is a lot of nutrients and micronutrients and even carbon in the manure,” he said.