Chicken Litter Paying

Since it predates recorded history, no one can say for sure when the use of manure as fertilizer began. Obvious assumptions can be made that it started when the caveman’s previously carnivorous diet began to change. Less obvious is how the caveman came to know that fertilizer helped him grow more food on less land, but millions of years of “field trials” have proven him right.

Testing, Testing

Under the watchful eyes of Delta and Pine Land Company’s technical service agronomist Zack Webb and district sales manager Bill Pritchett, the Howells test D&PL varieties on their farm.
In 2006, they had eight D&PL varieties: DP 445 BG/RR, DP 515 BG/RR, DP 449 BG/RR, DP 454 BG/RR, DP 455 BG/RR, DP 444 BG/RR, DP 143 B2RF and DP 117 B2RF. Stoneville 4554B2RF was used as a check.
In those tests, DP 515 BG/RR yielded 1,037 pounds, and was followed closely by DP 454 BG/RR at 1,050 pounds.
Commercially, the Howells plant only D&PL varieties: DP 445 BG/RR, DP 444 BG/RR, DP 515 BG/RR and, as a refuge, DP 432 RR.
Since the Howells’ farm is just two miles south of the Virginia line, looking at Virginia’s variety trials data would be more applicable to their operation. In 2006, DP 455 BG/RR led the average of all tests at 1,308 pounds per acre, followed by D&PL’s largest selling variety, DP 555 BG/RR, with an average of 1,292 pounds. A Liberty Link variety from FiberMax, FM 958 LL, was a close third at 1,290 pounds.

These days, it is a rare occasion when an organic fertilizer has any sort of advantage over an inorganic, but it can and does happen.

Most poultry houses use wood shavings or sawdust on floors as bedding material, which must be replaced once or twice per year. Chicken litter is the mixture of the bedding material, droppings, feed, feathers and even the occasional unbroken egg. Chicken litter is still used very successfully on ground that has been leveled to the point where topsoil has been cut away, and on ultra-light soils that are low in organic matter.

For the past five years, Benjy Howell and his father Larry have used chicken litter on some of their cotton fields near Como, NC. Como is located in the extreme northeast section of the state, two miles south of the Virginia line.

“Cotton loves organic matter,” Benjy Howell says. “On our sandy soils, we think it really improves the crop.”

One of the significant advantages of chicken litter is that it is free …

(A significant disadvantage? “The smell,” says Benjy.)

2006:
The Year of the Thrips

“We had phenomenal :pressure from thrips last year and we don’t know where they came from,” says Zack Webb, a D&PL technical services agronomist. “We had the highest thrips counts we’ve ever had. We had people who sprayed five times with different chemistries.”
North Carolina Extension cotton specialist Dr. Keith Edmisten adds that growing conditions were partly to blame: “The biggest reason we had such a problem is that it was cool and the cotton was growing slow. When cotton is growing fast, thrips are not as bad. Cool weather sets you up for a lot of potential injury.”
An ounce of prevention was worth more than a pound of cure in 2006, Edmisten says. “Temik seemed to pay off last year,” he explains. “Seed treatments gave us some control, but they didn’t give us a long enough period. Temik just stood out last year.”
North Carolina has relatively small fields – the Howell’s biggest is 65 acres – which means there are more field borders … which means there are more hosts for thrips. “Our field sizes are pretty small – our average is still around 15 acres – so the ratio of over-wintering habitat and alternative hosts compared to the amount of cotton is pretty high,” says North Carolina Extension Service entomologist Dr. Jack Bacheler. “We have corn, wheat and ditch banks – there is a lot of that compared to the fairly small cotton fields, so we get higher numbers.”

… and there is plenty of it. “At any given time in North Carolina, we have 6.6 million chickens in inventory and 3.5 million turkeys,” says Dr. Steve Koenning, an Extension plant pathologist at North Carolina State University. “We are talking about a lot of litter. Litter has adequate amounts of N, P and K to supply all of the nutrient needs of a cotton plant. There is probably enough litter (in North Carolina) to cover just about all of the fertilizer needs in cotton.”

Because of that amount, it’s a “please come get it and take this stuff off of my hands” situation for poultry operations. The waste must be disposed of in an “environmentally friendly manner” and applying it to crop land is just that.

Some recommendations, depending on the NPK analysis – and believe or not, they do test it – call for up to 8 tons per acre, with the average being four tons. The Howells generally go for 1-2 tons.

A University of Missouri Extension Service test conducted in the 2000 crop year showed that 2.5 tons per acre on leveled cotton and rice ground produced “significant” yield responses.

Not Created Equal

Another believe it or not, all litter is not created equal. Broiler litter, according to the Mississippi State University Extension Service, has an average analysis of 58-48-37, plus micronutrients – “calcium, boron, manganese and probably sulfur,” says Benjy. Layer litter has more phosphorus because of differences in rations.

It’s On the Plate

With all of the transgenic traits, cotton seed can cost up to $500 per bag, and that means there can be no waste of seed. The Howells have switched to a Deere model A74961 planter plate that they believe gives them three important things:
• More precise planting: “We have gone to a plate that drops two seeds with every drop every 8 inches of row,” says Benjy Howell. “The plate we used before dropped one seed per drop over 12 inches of row. The two-drop plate turns much slower than the one-drop plate, and we think that gives us a lot more precision.”
• Less chance of seedling disease: “With three seed every foot from the single drop plate, it just seemed like there was more chance for all three plants to be infected,” Benjy says. “With the two-drop plate, the plants are farther apart, and we don’t think we will get diseases as easily.”
• Something similar to increased vigor: “We think we’ll get a little extra push with two plants from the same drop coming up together,” Benjy adds.
Bill Barr, Deere’s project manager for planters, says precision is exactly what they are getting: “The plate drops two seeds in an area about the size of a quarter or a half-dollar. It does give that push and it helps with germination. That’s exactly what we wanted them to see with the plate. The end result to the customer is reduced seed cost.”
Barr adds that the A74961 plate will work with any Deere vacuum planter.

Phosphorus is an essential nutrient to cotton production, and plants cannot survive without it. Mississippi Phosphates, which produces 18-46-0 DAP (diaammonium phosphate), says that in addition to increasing yields, phosphorus improves crop quality, helps the crop overcome cold temperatures and drought, and protects against diseases. Benjy says his cost of DAP this season is in excess of $420 per ton.

And although is price of chicken litter is zero, that doesn’t mean there is no cost. “Even though it is free, there is still a lot of work in it,” Benjy explains. “It’s labor intensive. You have to pick it up, haul it, dump it, cover it, then load it up again and spread it.”

North Carolina Extension cotton specialist Dr. Keith Edmisten adds: “Probably the hardest thing is to do a good job of spreading it, and because of that sometimes you will see streaks in the field. The other thing is that you have to be careful not to give the cotton too much nitrogen. It’s hard to put out less than two or three tons per acre, and more can be too much. The problem is that sometimes growers don’t have enough faith that the litter has enough nitrogen and put out additional N. They end up with is a crop that is hard to defoliate.”

Koenning adds that litter “needs to be incorporated. If you could put it right on the row when you strip till, that would be even better because that will concentrate it more.” And the Howells come close to doing that: “We broadcast it, then run the strip tiller,” explains Benjy, “and that incorporates it on the row.”

The Nematode Advantage

And here’s yet another believe it or not: Applications of chicken litter help suppress nematodes. “We are getting control of the Columbia lance nematodes and some control of the root-knot nematode,” says Koenning. Due to the lack of a certain enzyme, poultry excrement “is in the form of urea, and urea breakdown produces ammonia, which is toxic to nematodes.”

If you can get past the smell