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Farm-Scape, Episode 1295

Research conducted in Southern Manitoba has found hog producers can dramatically reduce phosphorus levels in manure by adjusting diets.

The review of existing research and looked at water quality issues affecting Lake Winnipeg and Southern Manitoba water sources.

The work was conducted by the University of Manitoba and Agriculture and Agrifood Canada with funding from the Manitoba Livestock Manure Management Initiative, the Manitoba Rural Adaptation Council and the Sustainable Development Innovation fund.

Integrated Agricultural Management Specialist Dr. Katherine Buckley says her work involved an examination of the literature related to feeding management and manure handling and management.

"There are quite a few recommendations surrounding diet and a lot of them deal with just segregating livestock into various age groups and segregating them by sex, feeding the females and the males separately.

Some of the findings had to do with the amount of waste feed that ends up in the manure and there were various recommendations in the literature on reducing feed wastage.

Other recommendations involved feed additives which was a very important aspect of the literature review, which took up quite a bit of the literature review, was the addition of phytase and how that affected excretion and digestibility.

There was some indication in the literature that it might also affect the solubility of phosphorus but that is recent and it hasn't been confirmed by livestock studies here in Manitoba. I think this is one area which researchers will address."

The review also looked at manure treatment, either through composting or the addition of various amendments to immobilize phosphorus.

Dr. Buckley says there are well recognized physical and chemical treatments, some of which have been commercialized but not widely applied, that could immobilize phosphorus movement in the environment.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.