Manure Use Benefits and Barriers: Insights From a Survey of Farmers and Advisors

By MaryGrace Erickson and Melissa Wilson et.al

Key points

• We surveyed farmers and advisors on their perceptions about manure use as fertilizer in cropping systems
• Respondents generally recognized manure benefits to crop nutrition, yields, and soil properties
• The most-frequently selected barriers included transportation costs, odors and air quality, and timeliness of manure application

What We Did 

Manure is a critical link that enables nutrient recycling between crop and animal production. Despite its availability and benefits, using manure as fertilizer can pose practical challenges. Through a partnership between University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Iowa State University, and University of Minnesota, we investigated stakeholder perceptions about manure use in North American cropping systems. Specifically, we asked:

1. Why might stakeholders use (or not use) manure as a fertilizer? What benefits motivate manure use, and what barriers are there?
2. Where and how do stakeholders prefer to get information about manure use?
3. Are there different opinions about manure use within different groups (e.g., farmers vs. non-farmers, early vs. later career)?

To explore stakeholder perceptions, we distributed an electronic survey to farmers and advisors in North America. Respondents rated potential benefits and barriers to manure use, how knowledgeable they felt about manure impacts, and preferred information resources.