Our goal is to help dairy operators use ponds as reliable sources of nutrients for crops. By using lagoon nutrients properly, growers can:
- Reduce or eliminate the need for commercial fertilizers
- Maintain or improve crop production
- Protect groundwater and comply with water quality regulations
Find out if your current system allows you to use dairy nutrient water as the primary nutrient source for your crops!
A Checklist for Using Dairy Lagoon Water for Crop Production
Resources
Tracking Nutrient Applications
Simple worksheets to hand-calculate the amount of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium you applied to each field last season are available for download under the topic Tracking Nutrient Applications. Two forms of the spreadsheet are provided. One uses flow meter totalizer readings (thousand gallons) and a separate worksheet uses pump output in gpm and run time. You will also need a laboratory analysis of your lagoon water to complete the calculations.
If you are making multiple applications of liquid manure to each field, it's easy to maintain a running total of the amount of nutrients applied if you use a different worksheet for each field and enter the data as you get it. Excel spreadsheet versions of these simple calculation forms are also available for download.
The Aptrak Spreadsheet will track any kind of nitrogen application on a field, using any units you choose. Designed for fast and easy data entry, the Aptraker will calculate nitrogen application target gpm, and provide an instruction and data sheet to give to the irrigator. The Aptrak is now available for free download!
Lagoon Nutrient Application Calculator
What gpm will deliver the nitrogen application rate you need? Can your pump and pipeline deliver it without plugging? This handy Excel calculator does the math for you. It can also be used as a simple calculator for nitrogen applied based on gpm and run time or flow meter data.
Flow Meters for Nutrient Management
Need to install a flow meter for your lagoon water? Here’s what you need to know to do it right!
Do you have enough heat units to grow back to back corn? Will your early planted corn come off soon enough to get in a third crop of sudan? These charts are based on data from Denair and Parlier, but are customizable to any location.
Here are worksheets to help you through the calculations for liquid manure application (including pond drop and field record sheets) in Worksheets.
There are a number of useful lookup tables, charts, and conversion formulas located under Reference Charts that will minimize the number of calculations you will need to do.
Articles and publications related to choosing, installing, and using flow meters for dairy nutrient managment, forage crop studies, and many other topics relating to manure use on dairies, are listed under Articles and Publications.
This section contains several downloadable spreadsheets for nitrogen application, electrical conductivity, pond drop, and the NPK Spreadsheet 4.5.2.
University of California Lagoon Nitrogen Quick Test
Contact Us!
UC Cooperative Extension, Stanislaus County
Lagoon Nutrient Management Program
3800 Cornucopia Way, Suite A
Modesto, CA 95358
Fax: (209) 525-6840
E-mail: mcmathews@ucdavis.edu
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Site was last updated on 10/3/09 at 04:51 PM