Manure Use for Fertilizer and for Energy

Book excerpt: About 5% of all U.S. cropland is currently fertilized with livestock manure. Expanded environmental regulation through nutrient management plans will likely lead to wider use of manure on cropland, at higher production costs, but with only modest impacts on commodity demand, or farm structure. While current use is limited, expanded gov¿t. support could lead to a substantial increase in manure use as a feedstock. However, current energy processes are unlikely to compete with fertilizer uses of manure, because they leave fertilizer nutrients as residues, in more marketable form, and because manure-to-energy projects will be most profitable in regions where raw manure is in excess supply, with the least value as fertilizer. Charts and tables.