Fertilizer and excess nutrients in water make it possible to point fingers at farmers, processors and agriculturalists. Southwest Missouri's US Congressman, Roy Blunt, at a Public Hearing on Water Quality March 19 at College of the Ozarks, cautioned, “I am really sensitive to making sure our friends in agriculture don’t become villains when we begin discussing water quality problems and issues.”
David Casaletto, Executive Director with the Table Rock Lake Water Quality Inc. said, “Normally agriculture is not the main culprit. Farmers test the soil and apply just what needs to be there, because if their fertilizers run off, they’ve wasted money.”
Much of the blame in the Ozarks for water quality violations falls back on the poultry producers. Several innovative ideas to reduce water pollution were presented for poultry producers, specifically in heating and litter utilization.
Alum in poultry litter
Dr. Phillip Moore, a soil scientist with the USDA's Ag. Research Service Poultry Production and Product Safety Research unit, discussed the opportunities he has found when poultry litter is treated with Alum (Aluminum Sulfate). Alum binds to phosphorus in an unavailable form, it lowers ammonia volatilization, increases crop yields and decreases ammonia gases, which is better for the birds and the growers, Moore cited. “With alum, growers don’t have to ventilate the houses as much, which offers a 10 to 12 percent energy savings,” he said.
Poultry litter treated with alum will have a decreased phosphorus runoff by 75 percent.
Farmer to Farmer Commerce
Bill Harvill, a poultry producer near Neosho, Mo., said farmers must look for new ways to stay viable and must consider the environmental impacts of their ways. “We need to look at a way to heat a poultry barn besides propane heating. I have developed a relationship with a crop farmer in Barton County, and I shipped 1,000 tons of litter into Barton County in trade for 8,000 bushels of corn. As oil goes up so does commercial fertilizer. Poultry litter is great fertilizer. It needs to be put on corn. Since corn was $6 a bushel, I sold the corn and bought wood pellets to burn to heat my poultry houses,” Harvill explained.
Much of our commercial fertilizers come from Eastern Europe and our oil from the Middle East. New innovations in farmer to farmer commerce will encourage this regional trade and keep the money at home, create jobs and create commerce, he said.
With high priced corn and high priced fuel, Harvill called for the representatives to explore Carbon credits given to farmers who work with other farmers to trade litter for crops and vice versa.
Harvill said that he believed the government needed to start putting incentives out there to encourage a future in heating with biomass.
Blunt added, “In today’s changing energy world producers like Bill Harvill are making solutions that we didn’t have to find in an environment with cheap fertilizer and cheap fuel. By seeking products he needs of comparable value, he can also serve as a resource to others. People that moved (to the Ozarks) from the beginning have had to be very innovative. I believe we will continue that innovation.”
