Scott Dick, a partner in Agra-Gold Consulting of Landmark, MB named as one of two 2016 Manitoba Pork Pork Industry Award winners recently is a strong believer that manure is more valuable than regular synthetic fertilizer because there’s a lot more to manure that helps improve soil health.

“The product that we add back into the soil helps build organic matter in the soil,” said Dick. “There are many properties of the soil that improve simply by applying manure to it, that you don’t get with synthetic commercial fertilizer. Manure has many micronutrients which aid the crop that farmers might not add otherwise, helping in the yield and the quality of the crop.”

Dick says the industry is seeing advanced treatments that work very well in separating the nitrogen and phosphorus contained in manure allowing producers to target those nutrients in the application. He says technological advances in manure application have helped others to appreciate more the fertilizer value of manure.

Manitoba Pork, in recognition of exceptional leadership skills and commitment to protecting Manitoba’s environment through continuous innovation and raising the bar for excellence in nutrient management Agra-Gold Consulting and Dick received one of two 2016 Pork Industry Awards.

Agra-Gold Consulting Ltd. is a leading livestock nutrient management company in Manitoba, which focuses on maximizing the economic value of manure nutrients and ensuring livestock operations are environmentally sustainable. They provide nutrient management primarily for over 150 livestock producers across Manitoba, as well as soil testing for crop producers

“I started in the industry in 2001 and I think I was the first full time professional agrologist’s, one of the first professional agrologist’s to be fully dedicated to nutrient management,” said Dick. “Early on in my career, building barns back then, I helped in municipal hearings, putting together, and working on getting new sites developed.”

He has specialised in the technology field in terms of helping applicators get auto-steer into their tractors and mapping systems including GPS / GIF technology to do a better job of application. “In my current company Agra-Gold Consulting, the focus is on turning what some would view as a waste product, taking those nutrients and showing the value,” said Dick. “

That is what our business focuses on and I work a lot on is how do we demonstrate the value of these nutrients, and working with clients, selling manure and nutrients.” How do you see your company helping in hog expansion in Manitoba?

“We’re using science, more and more lab testing, precision tools, to put numbers to the nutrients we’re putting on fields, and assigning a value to it,” said Dick. “We will go into new areas because we will not develop in Hanover and LaBroquerie, for the most part we need to be on the west side of the Red River,” he said. “And moving into areas that don’t have deep roots of livestock production.”

Dick says the biggest thing is to tell and show these producers new to livestock production what the manure will do for their land and soil. What is the value of it, what is the enhanced benefit that he will see from manure? “It’s making that case, showing and supporting the farmer to help him make an educated decision as to whether it will make sense for his farm, and will this improve his land,” he says. “Will he have better yields and better returns by having a hog barn on his property, or being invested in it?”

The producers in those areas, relatively new to livestock production, don’t know what the real benefits are. Will there be variability, and what happens when it’s wetter, and how to get the nutrients still in the ground – there is a lot more apprehension, he adds. “So it’s creating that face and specifically what we need to do and what my company does, is we put numbers to it all,” said Dick. “We do a lot of testing, we can quantify and prove to the farmer, yes you have this much nutrient in your soil.”

He says the people in Iowa are building feeder barns all over, but doing it for the manure benefits and not for the return on pigs. “They’re doing it in the corn belt, primarily fertilizing corn which does incredibly well with manure, and we’re up against that,” he said.

“We are in a cold climate, we have to spend much to build a barn in this climate to raise pigs here, and fight against that. It is an opportunity for us that is also our challenge to create that opportunity.” •

— By Harry Siemens