Manure is an important nutrient fertilizer source for crops but also has the potential for environmental loss. Better information will improve nutrient management planning, agricultural and conservation program prioritization, and agricultural and environmental modeling efforts.
Many previously-published manure nutrient characteristics rely on decades-old data from narrow geographic locations, which can limit their value. A team of University of Minnesota researchers saw a need for updated manure nutrient estimations and envisioned a dynamic database of manure nutrient data.
With support from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and collaborations with the Minnesota Supercomputing Institute and the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, the team worked with laboratories, researchers and other data collaborators to bring together and standardize manure sample data from across the country into a first-of-its kind manure nutrient database called ManureDB.
ManureDB, a publicly available database, houses U.S. manure and organic amendment data from multiple laboratory sources. The ManureDB website allows for simple summaries, data visualizations and data downloads.
ManureDB was detailed in an article published in the Journal of the ASABE from the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers.
Source : umn.edu