Discover the Cover!

What is manure? Broadly speaking, manure is organic matter. Animal manure is the feces of animals—primarily of livestock like horses, cows, and chickens. It may be “pure,” but it often includes bedding or litter materials like straw or sawdust, in which case it will also contain animal urine. Facts about manure. Depending on the source, manure is very high in organic matter as well as nutrients essential to plant growth. As animals digest the plants and other food they eat, they are broken

I usually appreciate rain when we get it, but too often we don’t get it when we need it. I really prefer that precipitation doesn’t get too heavy in the winter because whether it comes in the form of rain or snow, it increases work load. The solid form might look pretty, but it certainly makes driving interesting sometimes. If it is not in the form of snow, then it’s usually worse, especially when the ground is not frozen! This is one of those years so far where I’d appreciate a little bit more

Andrew Snyder’s idea of ranch management changed the day he visited the Dakota Lakes Research Farm. Andrew was attending South Dakota State University, and was invited to visit the farm where Dr. Dwayne Beck talked about his research and soil health. Beck said “You’ve got to feed the livestock in the soil.” “As a rancher I can relate to that!” says Andrew. “This makes sense. You’re feeding the cows above the ground, you’ve got to feed the c

This story comes to us from Anne Manning at Colorado State University. It’s helpful to our community because it gives us a better understanding of what is going on in the soil beneath our feet as we work to improve soil health. It turns out there are two different kinds of soil organic matter – one that moves through the system and one that is more permanent. When combined with our recent article about the discovery of how to keep carbon in the soil we can see that when we manage g