C4-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, March 2?, 1995 TIGHT FERTILIZER SUPPLY CREATES MANURE MARKETING OPPORTUNITIES Leon Ressler Extension Agent Agriculture/Environment Strong worldwide demand for fertilizer over the past two years has contributed to a substantial rise in fertilizer prices. Nitrogen prices for the fall of 1994 were around 2S percent high er than the year before. Then an explosion at a nitrogen plant near Sioux City, lowa in December added increased pressure on nitro gen prices. The plant produced about two percent of the U.S. nitro gen supplies. In a good supply year, loss of that much production may have minimal impact, but in an already tight market the impact was signif icant This has contributed to even higher prices for spring fertilizer. These high fertilizer prices com bined with good weather are creat ing an excellent business oppor tunity for poultry fanners with manure to market Following several good market ing principles used in marketing ifiß m MANUFACTURERS of -W LAMINATED RAFTERS and WOOD ROOF TRUSSES 701 E. Linden St., RICHLAND, PA 17087 elephone: 717-866-6581 Fax; 717-866-7237 The Symbol Of Quelity any product will help you success fully market your manure. First promote your product Advertise! It is also important to understand your competition and be honest about your product’s advantages and disadvantages. Manure’s primary advantage is low cost relative to fertilizer as a source of crop nutrients. Another advantage is that some of the nitro gen in manure will be available slowly over time. Manure also sup plies micronutrients to the crops and organic matter to the soil. Offering manure test information to potential buyers is very important. See Table 1 for guidelines on developing pricing for manure. Offering custom application ser vice will open new opportunities and give you equal footing in an area which was in the past a main advantage of your competition. You need to honestly face your disadvantages as well. These include hauling cost, inability to custom-match a particular nutrient ratio required by a field, and com paction from heavy application equipment In order to assist suppliers and receivers to redistribute manure in southeastern Pennsylvania, I have Family Farm to Architectural Innovation TUDOR ARCH Engineered Timber Ephrata Area Young Farmers Meet EPHRATA (Lancaster Co.)—Duane Hobbs from Dupont and Tara Soper from Ciba hosted a dinner meeting at Family Time Restaurant for members of the Ephrata Area Young Farmers and other interested farmers. Luke Burkhart, from Pennsyl vania Dept of Agriculture, stated the successful completion of dis posal of any chemicals that were no longer useful. The proper dis posal of containers was explained. Some SO individuals participated been putting together lists of each group. Each year I update the list and send a list of suppliers to the potential receivers and vice versa. The lists are organized by county and township to enable you to find those on the matching list nearest to you. 1. Determine the current market price for N, P 2 os, and K 2 O for your area and use those prices in the following example formulas. 2. Use a manure test to determine the N-P 2 0s-K 2 O content of your manure. If no manure test is available, use book values in the agronomy guide. 3. Use Table 2-14 in the 95-96 Agronomy Guide (available from your Penn State Cooperative Extension Office) to determine the N availability factor for the manure nitrogen under your management system. For Example: A poultry layer manure sample has a nutrient content of 38 pounds of N, 48 pounds of P 2 O s , and 25 pounds of K 2 O per ton. The manure will be spring-applied and incorporated within one day. The value per ton would be: 38 lbs. N X .50 (Availability Factor) X $0.25 per lb 48 lbs. P 2 O s X $0.22 per lb. 25 lbs. K 2 O X $O.lB Over Thirty-Five Years Of Quality Service STRAIGHT BEAM in the program, and questions wwe answered relating to the most effective use of crop aids to envir onmental and economical situations. Ephrata Area Young Farmers recently hosted a meeting at Durlach/Mt Airy Fire Hall where some 12S persons were informed by John Schwartz, Lancaster Extension director, on the impor tance of the Clean and Green Act and the economic impact it has on assessment and the requirements If you are interested in partici pating, contact me at Penn State Cooperative Extension, 1383 Arcadia Road, Room 1, Lancaster PA 17601-3184, (717) 394-6851. Note: This calculation assumes that the crop requires Table 1 How Much Is Manure Worth? needed for participation. After a lively question and answer period, everyone was more knowledgeable of the impact of Act 319. The next monthly meeting will be April 11 at7:3opjn.atEarlG. Martin Farm, 250 Royer Road, Ephrata. Rob Kauffman, research manager for Brubaker Consulting, will provide the training in a Pesti cide Sprayer and Com Planter Calibration Seminar. This is open to the public. all the nutrients in the manure. However, your soil test may show, for instance, that your corn field requires only nitro gen. In that case, you could only justify paying for the nitrogen in the manure if you were buying it. = $ 4.75 = $10.56 = $ 4.50 $19.81 UNIVERSAL ARCH MANUFACTURERS OF GLU-UM ARCHES GLU-LAM BEAMS GLU-LAM TREATED POSTS ROOF TRUSSES FLOOR TRUSSES T&G AND V-GROOVE DECKING WE CUSTOM DESIGN OR MATCH EXISTING BUILDINGS COMPLETE LINE OF POST FRAME BUILDING MATERIALS CRANE SERVICE Everyone at Rigldply Rafters, Inc. is fully committed to serving our customers and providing them with the finest products available. Jhe excellence that we strive for is to show our appreciation for our customers continued loyalty to Rigidply Rafters. You deserve the bestl
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers