Manure use benefits and barriers: Insights from a survey of farmers and advisors

By: MaryGrace Erickson, Postdoctoral associate (University of Minnesota); Melissa Wilson, Extension manure management specialist (University of Minnesota); Erin Cortus, Extension engineer (University of Minnesota); Amy Schmidt, Animal manure management extension specialist (University of Nebraska-Lincoln)

Graphical summary

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.

What we found

In total, we received 709 responses. Most participants self-described as male (87%), and participants represented primarily the Corn Belt and High Plains region of the United States (67%). Participants held a variety of roles as crop farmers, livestock farmers, public sector advisors, private sector advisors. Respondents ranged from early- to late-career, with approximately half of respondents indicating themselves as having 20 or fewer years of professional experience. The following sections share some highlights of what we learned from survey respondents.

Impacts of manure use

Most participants valued manure as a fertilizer and soil amendment (Figure 1), recognizing the benefits of manure use within cropping systems. Respondents rated manure as beneficial to fertility and crop nutrition, soil biological and physical characteristics, and crop yields. Although research across the country suggests that manure use can have environmental benefits, our survey showed a lack of consensus: roughly equal fractions of respondents rated manure as harmful, neutral, or beneficial to the environment. This suggests that North American systems are using manure to effectively boost crop yields and promote soil health. But, given the lack of agreement among stakeholders, effective management of manure’s environmental impacts (both negative and positive) remains a priority for future education and research.

Figure 1: Relative percentage of responses in each category for potential manure use impacts.

Top ten practical barriers

Respondents selected items from a list of 35 potential barriers representing economic, logistical, agronomic, regulatory, and social implications. The ten most-selected barriers and the percentage of respondents who selected each were:

1. Cost of manure transportation and land application (91%)
2. Odors and air quality impairment (79%)
3. Timeliness of manure application (74%)
4. Wet, snow-covered, or frozen field conditions (68%)
5. Time and labor requirements for manure application (64%)
6. Compaction resulting from application equipment (58%)
7. Poor uniformity of manure application (52%)
8. Unpredictability of crop-available nutrients (51%)
9. Application practices, such as setbacks from water (51%)
10. Local water quality impairment (47%)

This shows that despite manure’s fertilizer value, stakeholders experience costs and logistical challenges when transporting and applying manure. Furthermore, for certain stakeholders, variability in manure’s nutrient content and ever-changing weather conditions can make it difficult to ensure nutrients are applied uniformly and available to crops. The large fractions of stakeholders who reported experiencing these barriers (47.2 to 90.7%) shows a clear need to develop technologies, tools, and policies that overcome limitations to effective manure use.

Want the full details and discussion?

We found even more details about stakeholder perceptions of manure use in cropping systems. For example, demographics like profession and amount of professional experience were often associated with how people responded. This means there are distinct extension and education needs of the different stakeholder groups. To read the full details of the survey methods, statistical methods, and our findings, please see the peer-reviewed publication:

Erickson, M., Cortus, E., Koelsch, R., Johnson, L., Wilson, M. L., Andersen, D., Zelt, M., & Schmidt, A. M. (2025). Manure use benefits and barriers according to agricultural stakeholders. Agronomy Journal, 117(4), e70110. https://doi.org/10.1002/agj2.70110. 

Acknowledgments

This study was a collaborative effort with co-authors Rick Koelsch, Leslie Johnson, Dan Andersen, and Mara Zelt. Key partners in survey deployment were the American Agronomy Society Certified Crop Advisor Program, the Fertilizer Institute, and Manure Manager magazine. This work was funded by North Central SARE project ENC18-173.

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