Maximizing Manure - Boosting Soil Health and Crop Yields

By Blake Jackson

The Value of Manure project helps farmers maximize the benefits of cow manure while reducing dependence on nitrogen-based synthetic fertilizers.

Launched in 2022, the initiative is supported by the New York Farm Viability Institute (NYFVI) and the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program (NNYADP).

One of the participating farms is Hanselman Farms, situated in Delaware County within the New York City drinking water supply watershed.

The Hanselman family has operated Windy Acres since 1954 and DelRose Farms since 1979. Their farm includes a 60-cow dairy herd along with extensive vegetable and cash crop operations.

Since 2003, they have collaborated with the Watershed Agricultural Council and Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) Delaware County on nutrient management.

Their partnership with the Nutrient Management Spear Program (NMSP) began in 2022, working alongside On-Farm Research Coordinator Juan Carlos Ramos to assess manure’s efficiency.

“We are fortunate because we are both dairy farmers and crop growers,” said Ladd Hanselman. “Because of this, we have manure readily available to use as fertilizer on our farm there are many crop growers that don’t have manure. We want to put it to good use and stretch it as far as we can. With these research trials, we will be able to put numbers to it. Exactly how much more does it cost us to put an acre of manure injected down versus putting it on top? It’s a good thing to know, and participating in this project helps us with that.”

The Hanselmans have practiced no-till farming for a decade, preserving soil structure and microbiome health. However, managing manure nutrients in no-till systems presents challenges. “No-till is good for soil health, but it can make management of manure nutrients more challenging,” Ramos explained. “If manure is not incorporated in the ground, less of its nitrogen will be crop available.”

A new USDA-NRCS Conservation Innovation Grant (CIG) project in 2025 aims to introduce manure injection services in the Delaware County watershed. “The CIG project is bringing disk coulter injection to Delaware County, a technology that we have not had in the region, allowing us to capture the full fertilizer value of manure on both row crop and sod fields, while reducing nutrient run-off risk,” said Paul Cerosaletti.

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