Abstract
Stakeholders for nutrient-impaired watersheds have long discussed the causes and consequences of nutrient surpluses associated with intensive livestock production. Nonetheless, nutrient surpluses relative to crop requirement, particularly with phosphorus (P), persist and continue to contribute to water quality impairment. Nutrient life-cycle analysis shows that mineral P, from soil minerals or mined fertilizer P, flows to livestock regions from grain-producing regions. Although creating a return flow of these nutrients to grain fields seems like an easy solution, significant economic obstacles exist to creating a connected manureshed over large geographic distances. To limit the impact of manure use on local surface water, state, federal, and nongovernmental actors have largely targeted their interventions in manure source areas. Even manure transport programs tend to focus on obstacles at the point of production in manure source areas. However, if we are to realize connected manuresheds that cost-effectively distribute manure nutrients beyond the current publicly funded incentive programs, we must address obstacles to manure utilization in potential sink areas that supply grain to livestock regions. Further, we can harness the power of computer-mediated market design and scientific research to build even more-effective markets that generate manure nutrient transfers of an order of magnitude that will substantively improve water quality in source areas. This manuscript offers economic insights into potential improvements to current manure nutrient relocation programs. Under the right conditions, these improvements will relocate more manure, generate more environmental benefits, and improve the profitability of most participating farmers.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2022
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1002/jeq2.20329
Repository Citation
Duke, Joshua M. and McGrath, Joshua M., "An agronomic-economic approach to connect manure nutrients back to grain-producing regions" (2022). Plant and Soil Sciences Faculty Publications. 178.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/pss_facpub/178
Notes/Citation Information
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made. © 2022 The Authors. Journal of Environmental Quality © 2022 American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America.