The Natural Fertlizer Podcast

550,000 Manure Samples Exposed What Farmers Have Been Getting Wrong for 20 Years

The book values most farmers use to plan manure applications came from a handful of states in the late 1990s. Feed rations have changed, equipment has changed, water management has changed, and those old numbers no longer reflect what's actually coming out of the barn. Nancy Bormann, Ph.D. spent 14 years in swine nutrient management before going back to earn her doctorate working on the USDA-funded National Manure Nutrient Database at the University of Minnesota. The database now contains over 550,000 samples from across the United States and is reshaping how farmers, agronomists, and regulators understand what manure is actually worth. In this episode, Abe and Nancy dig into what's changed in manure composition over the last two decades, why distillers grains have been quietly pushing sulfur levels up while phytase brought phosphorus down, how water management and equipment choices create more variability than most nutrient plans account for, and what happens when you start comparing the real dollar value of organic nutrients against commercial fertilizer, specifically how much of that money stays in the local economy versus leaving the state. They also get into the bigger picture: national security, the infrastructure gap between where organic nutrients are generated and where they're needed, why regulations around manure transport need to catch up, and what WINR Centers are doing to close the loop between food processing waste streams and the farmland that needs those nutrients back. CHAPTERS: 0:00 Intro and Nancy's Background 1:11 The National Manure Nutrient Database 4:09 Why This Matters for Farmers and Agronomists 5:48 Variability in Manure Nutrient Content 7:29 How Distillers Grains Changed Everything (Sulfur and Phosphorus) 10:30 The Phytase Revolution in Swine Nutrition 13:11 Why Accurate Manure Data Matters More Than Ever 15:06 Livestock Operations as Fertilizer Manufacturers 16:54 What Is Manure Actually Worth vs Commercial Fertilizer? 19:06 Carbon-Based vs Chemistry-Based: The Advantage Nobody Talks About 21:49 Regulations Holding Back Nutrient Exchange Across State Lines 23:45 The Economics of Getting Manure Management Right 25:06 Soil First: When High Soil Tests Mean Negative ROI 27:13 How Lab Quality and Analysis Standards Have Improved 28:46 National Security and Nutrient Independence 33:02 WINR Centers and the Organic Waste Infrastructure Gap 36:42 Why 90% of Organic Nutrient Dollars Stay Local 38:45 Why Organic Nutrients Got a Bad Reputation (And Why That's Changing) 39:52 The Future of Nutrient Management Explore the Manure Nutrient Database: https://manuredb.umn.edu Learn about WINR Centers: https://winrcenter.com Natural Fertilizer Services: https://naturalfertilizerservices.com

The Real Reason Your Herbicide Stopped Working

You sprayed once, then twice, and the weeds are still standing. The herbicide didn't fail you, your water did. When your spray water sits at a high pH, the calcium in it wraps around the herbicide molecule before it ever reaches the plant. You mixed expensive water and called it a day. We get into two things here. First is gypsum, what it actually does to your soil, why high magnesium locks your ground up tight as concrete, and why your soil test can show plenty of calcium and still have none available for your crop. Second is spray water pH, how to test it, how to lower it, and why a coffee can of citric acid in a thousand gallon tank can save you an entire extra pass across the field. There's a live demo in here too. Watch the pH drop in real time with barely a pinch of citric acid. Once you see it you'll never skip the water test again. For more info, check out our website. https://naturalfertilizerservices.com/ [https://naturalfertilizerservices.com/]

What happens when you stop importing nutrients and start recycling them!

Fertilizer prices aren't coming down, input costs keep climbing, and most farmers are still buying nutrients from the other side of the world when the answer might already be on their own operation. Abe sits down with Kelly, a row crop and livestock farmer from Griswold, Iowa, to talk about what happens when you actually close the nutrient cycle, what it costs to farm today, and why the next generation is going to do this differently than their parents did. If you're in agriculture and you've been thinking there has to be a better way, this one's worth watching.

How Farmers Improve Soil Health Naturally - Real Results

We’ve been talking a lot about soil health and natural fertilizer systems, but this one is a little different, this is real, long-term experience from the field. I sat down with Bill, a farmer, neighbor, and customer I’ve worked with for over 10 years. We go back to the early days when we first started testing soils and experimenting with compost, and he shares what he’s actually seen change over time. We talk about bringing micronutrients back into depleted soils, what happens when you focus on biology instead of just inputs, and how things like earthworms, residue breakdown, and soil structure have shifted on his farm. We also get into no-till, cover crops, and how keeping the soil active year-round plays a big role in long-term productivity and stability. This isn’t theory, it’s what it looks like when you stick with a system and watch it evolve over the years.

Natural Fertilizer vs Chemicals: The Future of Soil Health with Bioferm

We’ve been talking a lot about soil health and natural systems lately, and this conversation really puts things into perspective. I sat down with Wolfgang from Bio xG to go deeper into what they’ve been building with Bioferm and why taking a more natural, biology-first approach might be the key to improving soil performance long term. We get into how complex these systems really are, why isolating single nutrients doesn’t tell the full story, and how plants, microbes, and organic compounds all work together in ways we’re still trying to fully understand. We also talk about nutrient efficiency, real-world results, and what this could mean when you’re actually applying it in the field. If you’re thinking about soil health, fertilizers, or just trying to get more out of your program without overcomplicating things, this is worth a watch. For more info, check out our website. https://naturalfertilizerservices.com/