Manure and Nutrient Management

All farming operations that generate or apply manure and agricultural process wastewater must have a written Manure Management Plan. Penn State Extension provides dairy cattle and other livestock producers with the resources to prepare their manure management plans.

In this section, you will also find information on nutrient management, including feeding dairy cattle to control nitrogen and phosphorus in manure. Information on manure spreader calibration, cow manure storage, and waste disposal is also available here.

Dairy Manure and Nutrient Management Plans

Having a written Manure Management Plan is a requirement for all livestock producers who generate manure on their farm or import and apply it. The plan should help identify when, where and at what rate to spread manure, slurry, dirty water, and other organic wastes.

The document should help producers minimize the risk of causing pollution, and show whether they have enough storage or usable spreading area. It should also provide an overview of how much manure is produced per year at the facility, what crop nutrients are in the manure, and how the manure is handled on-site.

Pennsylvania law requires farming operations that include an Animal Concentration Area (ACA) or pasture to have a Manure Management Plan, which can be developed by the producer or by a nutrient management consultant. Penn State Extension provides an online course on Writing a Manure Management Plan.

Farming operations that are defined as Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) or Concentrated Animal Operations (CAOs), are also required to have more detailed written plans, called Nutrient Management Plans.

These plans must be developed by a Certified Nutrient Management Specialist and submitted to the local county conservation district for review and approval. A summary of Nutrient Management Legislation and an overview of what a Nutrient Management Plan includes is also available in this section.

Manure Evaluation and Dairy Cattle Nutrition

Dairy cattle producers can use manure evaluation to gather useful information about the general health, rumen fermentation, and digestive function of dairy cows. Paired with a close examination of feeding and management practices, manure sampling and evaluation is a valuable source of information for the dairy herd health.

Producers can also use Penn State Extension’s comprehensive Feed Management Monitoring Spreadsheet for Dairy Cows to determine nutrient utilization for lactating, dry cows, and heifers. Guidelines on how to sample manure are also available.

Manure Storage Hazards and Emissions

When planning manure storage facilities and stockpiling/stacking areas, producers should be aware of the various hazards and regulations. In general, manure and agricultural process wastewater must be stored at least 100 feet away from any environmentally sensitive areas, including streams, rivers, springs, lakes, or other water reservoirs. Additionally, stockpiles must be on lands of less than 8% slope.

Livestock producers should also be informed of the safety risk from manure storages of dairy cows bedded with gypsum. Gypsum bedding adds sulfur to manure, which can lead to dangerous levels of hydrogen sulfide gas emissions.

Other factors that producers need to monitor are ammonia and methane emissions. See how nitrogen fed to dairy cows contributes to ammonia emissions and feeding strategies to reduce excess nitrogen in the diet. Resources and dietary practices to reduce dairy cattle methane production are also available in this section.

For producers using on-farm anaerobic digestion of dairy herd manure for power production and odor reduction, see this resource on nutrients and pathogens during anaerobic digestion. You can explore other safety-related topics in the Dairy Cattle and Personal Safety section.