Thanks to a grant from the Nebraska Environmental Trust, calibrating manure spreaders is easier now. Twenty kits of equipment and supplies for calibrating both dry and liquid manure spreaders are now available in University of Nebraska Lincoln Cooperative Extension Offices across the state. They are available for farmers and their advisors to check out. Click here for a map of where the manure calibration kits are located.

Among other items, in each kit is, a measuring wheel for the weight and area method of calibrating, an electrical conductivity meter for checking salt concentration of liquid manure, rain gauges for sprinkler applications, a platform scale and 22 square foot sheets of plastic for calibrating dry spreaders, and instructions and forms for calibration. They also have supplies for sampling manure for nutrient analysis, including a soil probe (for stockpiled manure), and a pruning shears for taking corn stalk nitrate samples at the end of the season.

The reason for these kits is to help livestock producers protect our environment, and get full value from the nutrients in their manure. In addition, to meet Department of Environmental Quality regulations, farmers need to calibrate their applicators so they can document how much manure they are applying.

Counties offering the kits include: Box Butte, Boone, Brown, Cass, Cuming, Custer, Dawson, Dixon, Gage, Holt, Lincoln, Madison, Merrick, Morrill, Perkins, Phelps, Scotts Bluff, Washington and York.