Manitoba produced over 4 million hogs in 1998, up 15% from the previous year, with the trend toward larger hog barns. Strategies for waste disposal need to be an integral part of management of hog operations. The high volume of liquid waste associated with hog operations, combined with the high costs of liquid waste transport highlight the need to identify approaches to waste disposal that maximize efficiency both of nutrient use and transport.
Application of swine manure on potatoes affords distinct advantages to both the hog and potato producer. Potatoes are a high value crop that require large nutrient inputs to achieve maximum production. To the hog producer, manure is the cost of doing business. A heavy user of the waste product of the hog industry would be of considerable benefit. And unlike cattle manure, swine manure does not appear to cause scab lesions.
Fall manure application raises serious concerns related to odour production, and volatile and leaching losses. Nitrate leaching could be particularly serious on the light-textured soils that are ideal for potato production. There are, as yet, no adequately explored alternatives to fall swine manure application on potato soils.
In this study we explored the use of in-crop soil injection of swine manure on potatoes prior to canopy closure as an alternative to fall manure application. The advantages to this approach are 1) it provides the crop with nutrients at a time when nutrient demand is rapidly increasing, 2) it reduces the losses of N due to volatilization and leaching, 3) it minimizes the spread of the odour to at or near ground level, and below the canopy.