North Temperate Lakes LTER: Manure Managment in Urbanizing Settings

The management of manure in urbanizing settings is a critical issue in the Lake Mendota watershed. The primary focus of this project was to examine the difficulties faced by livestock operations when managing manure on field systems that are fragmented by development. A survey regarding manure management was sent to Dane County, WI farms within the Lake Mendota watershed. The survey was conducted in two phases; March to May 2003 and March to May 2004. This dataset and accompanying survey entitled "Manure Management on the Urban Fringe" is available for users wishing to ascertain animal feeding operation size and management patterns in the Lake Mendota watershed. The data also include the distance from animal feeding operations to nearest urban centers via Euclidean (crow flies) and Road Network distances. Results suggest that exurban developments exert a strong influence on manure management routines of livestock producers. This influence is very local. Farmers in an urbanizing setting were more likely to encounter problems during manure hauling when the fields they were accessing were in close proximity to urban developments, regardless of their proximity to the urban core. The distances and times required to haul manure between the farm and the most distant field increased in the last five years. Land rental rates steadily increased at the same time that lease lengths shortened. Cash grain land tends to be sparse as livestock producers compete with developers for tracts on which to distribute manure. Manure brokering is a possible strategy to monitor land availability and coordinate manure placement between farmsCabot, P. E., S. K. Bowen, and P. J. Nowak. 2004. Manure management in urbanizing settings. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation 59:235-243.The survey "Manure Management on the Urban Fringe" was developed with assistance from Roger Schmidt and Charmaine Tryon-Petith with the Integrated Crop and Pest Management Program, University of Wisconsin-Madison.Number of sites: 83 farm