ABSTRACT:
The management of manure in urbanizing settings is a critical issue, due to the frequent nature of manure placement to scattered fields in areas where land is fragmented by development. Results suggest that exurban developments exert a strong influence on manure management routines of livestock producers. This influence is very local. Farmers in an urbanizing setting were more likely to encounter problems during manure hauling when the fields they were accessing were in close proximity to urban developments, regardless of their proximity to the urban core. The distances and times required to haul manure between the farm and the most distant field increased in the last five years. Land rental rates steadily increased at the same time that lease lengths shortened. Cash grain land tends to be sparse as livestock producers compete with developers for tracts on which to distribute manure. Manure brokering is a possible strategy to monitor land availability and coordinate manure placement between farms.
Footnotes
Perry E. Cabot is a dissertator in the Department of Biological Systems Engineering and the Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, Sarah K. Bowen is a graduate student in the Departmnet of Rural Sociology and Pete J. Nowak is a professor in the Department of Rural Sociology and the Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, all at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin.
- Copyright 2004 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society
This article requires a subscription to view the full text. If you have a subscription you may use the login form below to view the article. Access to this article can also be purchased.