 All right, so today we're going to talk about stacking area site selection. So where are you putting your manure and why should you or should you not put it there? Miner, parasite management, manure weed management, composting your manure, at home spreading options, and working with a customer manure hauler. So there's a couple of things that we covered last year that we're not going to cover this year just because of time. And so we will link that presentation from last year. And mostly that talks about the production of manure. So how much manure is produced and how do we calculate that? That is gone through last year very well. And so we're going to link that up and you can go and look at that there. We're going to skip over that this year. All right, so why manage manure? This is something that we always talk about. So we know that manure contains valuable nutrients that our plants need. And if the nutrients are not used, they become a pollutant and are wasted. So a lot of people call manure waste when I like to call it a nutrient, unless you're not using it, then we call it a waste. And so it's kind of like dirt and soil, right? Miner is a nutrient or a waste product, depending on how we're using it. So improper manure storage and land application leads to excess soil nutrients that can lead to surface runoff with soil erosion. That we also have some leachate issues. So where the nutrients are leaching down into the ground via water and then water contaminated with manure and oftentimes leads to the elbow bloom that you're going to see over in the right hand picture. So other reasons to manage our manure, external parasites like flies. We were just talking about flies hatching. It's warmed up now. It's a little humid the last couple of days. And so we're going to start seeing some of those flies coming out of the woodwork. Bacteria and pathogens, rodents, something that we don't like. They're nuisance odors. We don't want anything to smell. We don't like our stuff to smell. We don't want our neighbors to think we're smelly. Internal parasites. That's an issue for all of us that we're worried about with our animals, whether that's horses, sheep, cattle, whatever we're working with. And so we'll talk just a little bit about that later. Weed seeds and then visual appearance. So I put this one on here. This is a new one that I put on, but, you know, it depends on. So last year at this time, we were actually talking about a sacrifice area in a dry lot in terms of it being too wet and having proper drainage and your horses being up to their knees in mud. And this year we're talking about visual appearance as you're going to have manure out there, but it's not going to be stoppy manure. If you have a dry lot, maybe it's just going to be a solid manure and flies around and what does that look like? So just a quick couple of notes on manure stacking and stockpiling guidelines. So there are short-term manure stockpiles and then there's permanent manure stockpiles. So for the short term, manure may not be stockpiled for more than nine months. And the same location cannot be used from year to year. Whereas a permanent stockpile that can be used for more than nine months. But it does involve some soil investigation and regulatory oversight. And whether or not you're using a short term or a long term stockpile area, we want to make sure that we're staying away from sandy soils. So sandy soils have rapid permeability, which means that they basically just allow the nutrients to flow through and get to our groundwater quickly. And so we call that leaching clay or loamy soils. They have a slower permeability, so they allow less leaching, and that helps to maintain or retain that nitrate in the soil profile and doesn't let it go away. So we also want to consider the depth to groundwater. So are we potentially harming that groundwater if we're not using proper soil and then also the location to surface water? So if we have runoff from our manure stockpile, is that going to reach a creek, a river, a lake, something that has something where our animals we drink out of like a dam? Will that be will the manure be able to reach that or the manure runoff? OK, so stockpiling site selection, manure stockpiles may not be located in gravel pits, excavation sites, long streams, lakes, flood plains. And then there's also some restrictions with our water supplies. So within 50 feet of a private water supply or 100 feet of a public water supply. And then some people ask if you can cover that pile. So can you cover it for odor? Can you cover it for flies? Can you cover it for nutrient to reduce nutrient loss? You absolutely can. Some states actually require you to cover it. And so you can do that. However, North Dakota, just keep in mind, we have to make sure we're anchoring that securely because we were just talking about this before we started. The wind is a little wild here. OK, so we're going to talk a little bit about parasite management next. And the reason we're going to talk about that this year more so in the manure world is because of this little ditty. So US drought monitor from North Dakota. This is last week, so May 11th, 2021. New ones should come out tomorrow. But as of last week, our state climatologist Adnan Acuse says that we are in 98% of the state is in at least drought. It is in some at least 98% of the state is in some kind of drought. And then we have 85% of the state is actually an extreme drought. So I probably don't have to tell you guys that you very likely know stuff's happening is dry out there and it's not great. So because of that, we're probably going to have to think more of a sacrifice area. Some of us would call it a dry lot area this year. So what do we need when we have a dry lot? Rachel touched on some of this last week, and we will link up that presentation where we talked about drought management. But I just want to touch on these things again. So for a sacrifice area, we're going to want shelter, water, feed and space. So those are the four necessities of having a dry lot area. And I'm going to talk about them back and forth dry lot area, sacrifice area. And then we can even lump an exercise paddock into this. So managing them is going to be very similar. Plan ahead for what you want to use it for. Are we going to attach it to a joining pasture because we're rotationally grazing. And at some point, we need our pastures to have a break. And so we're bringing those animals in to this sacrifice area or this dry lot and giving our pastures time to rest. Or are we having it? It doesn't matter if it's over connected up to those pastures. Or if it's on a different part of our property because that is going to be our sacrifice area this year. We are not going to graze our grass. There's no rain. It has not grown. And we don't want to wreck it for next year. Or potentially even later this summer or fall. And so is that something that we can, it doesn't matter where it's located. We're just going to use it anyway. We want to make sure the pen can be accessed with equipment. So whether that's a skid steer, that's what you're using. If you're using some kind of four wheeler with a wagon attached, if you're going to be hand pitching winner out of there, if you're going to be using a wheelbarrow, really just making sure that you can access that pen with equipment. Sometimes folks will talk about even just putting a little gate on there just for you to walk through. Sometimes people forget about that. And so making sure that you can access that pen in a way that's convenient for you. And then will the pen properly drain? And you might be thinking, really? Is this something we need to talk about right now, given our current situation? But like I said, last year at this time, we were showing you pictures of extremely wet and improperly drained dry lots. And so we just always want to keep that in mind. Okay, and then managing our ground or the soil that we have this on. So we want to remove the manure regularly. Drag the pen occasionally to maintain a level ground surface. And then keep in mind those high traffic areas. Where are those high traffic areas at? Do we need to put some heavy use pads in? If that one area is always going to be our dry lot, always going to be our sacrifice area, do we want to consider putting in some heavy use pads? Okay, so now getting more into the parasites. So flies, flies breed when spring temperatures rise above 65. And we are there, folks. It is warm today. Flies deposit their eggs in the top few inches of moist manure and their eggs hatch in as little as seven days. And so we're going to start seeing some major fly hatches coming up here, especially if it stays warm like this. And we do get a little bit of moisture like we're supposed to that's predicted. We're going to see some flies. And so how do we manage that? We remove the manure. Okay, and then we have internal parasites. So how do we internal parasites move? We have eggs in the manure. They then we have the infective larvae and the feces. So they're in the manure. Then we have moved from an egg to an infective larval stage. And then our animals are typically moved to pasture. But however this year, they're probably going to be moved to a sacrifice area. And sometimes the sacrifice areas are a part of a pasture. So we don't give them access to the entire pasture. We just give them a piece of it. Well, there's still grass growing out there. And we know that our animals really like that fresh grass. Even if it's tiny, just very short, they're going to go out and try to eat it. So that's where the ingested part then comes in. And so no manure, no infestation. However, that's just not realistic. So how can we alleviate some of these issues? Just a quick comment on temperature. So moderate temperature and moisture are what these parasites like. It's also what our flies like. So cold slows and stops the development. And excess heat kills the eggs and larvae. It is possible that heat manners efficiently to kill parasites, including ascorid eggs. And so those are some real nasty internal parasites that you guys have to deal with. Spreading non-composted horse manure on pastures is not recommended. However, if you're going to do that, and I might touch on this again later, but if you're going to do that, and that is a management option that you've chosen, just make sure you do it when it's warm out, it's hot. And you have a sufficient spread pattern. And so when I say that, I'm saying like, if you take the wheelbarrow out and dump it, and then you push it around a little bit with your fork, and then you expect the sun to kill those internal parasites, it's probably not going to happen. We need to spread that manure out, give it full access to the sun, give it some heat and some days for that to happen, and then we should be able to kill some of those parasites. So composting then is something that actually helps. And so we can see here, this is a table from the American Association of Equine Practitioners. I've linked these up in this presentation. So when you get this presentation in your email, you should just be able to click on that, and it should go right to this table. So there's no development above this level of heat. So 104 degrees Fahrenheit. And when we are actually composting, we're at 130 to 150 degrees. So that's awesome. We are killing, we are able to kill those parasites with composting. Just another quick thing. So optimal temperature is 71 to 91 degrees Fahrenheit. That's when we have some action happening. However, if it does get too warm, we're able to slow down the development or even sometimes kill the development. But like I said, we're going to have to stretch those out, or we're going to have to spread out the manure if we're going to not compost it. And then just keep in mind, like I said, anything. So no development during a frost. So anything that's freezing, we're good to go and we're killing stuff. So that's good. Okay. So management practices to reduce internal parasites. We want to remove them in our daily from stalls, from run-ins, and weekly, or more frequently if you have time for that, from paddocks and pastures. And so we want to be sure that pastures and paddocks are well-drained because those parasites, internal and external, like a moist environment. So if we can keep things dried out, we have less of an issue with that, with an overpopulation. Compost manure, rather than spreading it on fields where your horse is grazed. Again, if you are going to be grazing where you're spreading raw manure, we want to make sure that you are spreading it out thin, that we have some heat to kill stuff, and that you're giving it at least 21 days to before we're putting new animals on there, and even longer if you can. So use a feeder for hay and grain to avoid feeding on the ground. Again, sometimes this is going to be hard. Your horses are, you can't tell them not to go eat the very fresh grass that's growing in your sacrifice area if you are using a piece of pasture. But you can potentially get your feed up and off the ground a little bit, just to help with some of that ingestion. Okay, so parasite management continued. So we also have implement fly control programs. What does your fly control program look like? So are you removing manure? Are you, when you remove your manure, is your stacking area or stockpiling area, is it away from your sacrifice area? Is it far enough away? You don't want your manure stockpile area in your sacrifice area because then it's right there. You're allowing the flies to literally be right by your animals. So if we can move that out of the way a little bit, that would help. You can also invest in some wasps. Those will help potentially kill some of the flies and fly larvae that are coming in, turning your manure, so turning it and making sure that we are disrupting that life cycle because when we're actually taking the eggs and turning them inside, they heat up and they die and we don't have that hatch then. So routinely examine horses for telltale signs of infestation. That would be internal infestation. Establish a parasite prevention and monitoring program with your veterinarian. And again, this may include regular manure checks in the deworming program. So we have the side of the manure management where we can manage the manure and potentially the reason that these animals are ingesting the parasites or the flies, not ingesting the flies, but having the fly issue. But also there are other kinds of control. And so if we put those two tools together, if we put manure management together with a potential program from your veterinarian, we can have the best of both worlds. So again, the parasite management presentation from last spring, which is all still very relevant information will be linked up. It's at the end of this presentation and the resources. It'll be in the email I send you. And that talks more about Dr. Carrie Hammer goes through and really talks to us about parasite management. Okay, so weed management is next. So I wanted to bring up specifically a certain weed this year for you. So we're going to talk about Palmer amaranth. And the reason I want to bring it up to you is because we have talked about this extensively in the cropping community. We're starting to really talk about it more in our larger livestock sectors, our cattle area in North Dakota. But we haven't quite touched on our smaller farms and our smaller sectors of livestock. But you guys are still a very important part of helping us manage this weed. So Palmer amaranth as well as Water Hemp are two weeds in the pigweed family. They're summer annuals. They're native to Southwest US. So it's something that's native to us here in the US. But North Dakota hasn't quite had a lot of it yet. So it is on the North Dakota Noxious Weed List. Okay, so as you see in this picture, I left this in here because I just wanted you to quick see. Palmer amaranth is related to red root pigweed. Most of us have this. Most of us have red root pigweed. And so when we see these as seedlings, we probably think it's red root. Not a big deal. And so it is a bigger deal though because it's much, much, much harder for us to manage both Palmer and Water Hemp. So hairs are no hairs on the stem. This is just another identifying factor. So no hair, Water Hemp and Palmer amaranth. And then hairs on the stem. And you can see those hairs kind of right here. I don't know if you can see my mouse, but you can see the hairs on the right hand side on the right picture. So red root pigweed and Powell pigweed actually have little hairs on the stems. Okay. And so again, I just wanted to show you a couple more identifying factors. We do have some publications that show this really well. And so you can get those from your extension agents. So the reason I bring this up is because we are having a very hard time chemically controlling this weed. So it's resistant to several classes of herbicides. And so you can see here on the left hand side, this was a field that had been sprayed just days before we went and looked at it. And already these seedlings are starting to grow. And on the right hand side, this was a weed that was in that same field that had been sprayed by that application a few days beforehand. Half of the weed died, half of it's resistant, and so that's why we're running into issues. So here's just a quick map of where it's at North Dakota right now or where at least it's been confirmed. And so this is from 2020. Okay, so how does it spread? Why am I telling you guys this? I'm telling you especially this year because one of the ways it spreads, hay or livestock feed, another way, manure. And so these seeds go through the animals, they come out the back end of the manure, and they are still viable. And so it takes very few seeds to make a huge infestation. So hay or livestock feed, very likely, especially based on our chat with Kevin and Rachel and Paige last week in the drought management webinar, we're probably gonna be buying hay this year. And you're probably gonna be shipping it in from somewhere else. It is potential that you'll have some issues. And so really we just wanna watch where are we feeding that hay that we're bringing in that we don't necessarily know who we're getting it from. And even if they have the best weed control management, there's still potential for those seeds to be in there. So we just really wanna watch where are we feeding it, where is that manure going, and so that we can monitor that site and make sure that we don't end up with some kind of infestation. Okay, does composting help? Yes, but management is key. So if just one seed survives me eating my cattle, and I know it says cattle in here, this is a direct quote taken from Joe Eichler, our weed specialist. And so go with me here on the cattle and escapes the heat of composting, it spread onto a crop field and then one plant can make a million seeds in a year. And so the seed heads are just huge on these plants. So even in direct competition with a crop, so it's very likely that there will be another crop growing out there, but even in direct competition with a crop, these plants still produce up to 100,000 seeds a year. And so that's why it spreads so quickly. I wanted to throw this picture up here and just show you. So this is a hay pile, someone's hay pile, and you can see that there is, so all of these weeds growing out and around this hay is Palmer or water hemp. And so it isn't our hay, we're going to go take that hay then and put it in for our animals to eat and potentially run into some issues. Okay, so if you're out and about, you're either in your pasture, you're looking at your hay, you're monitoring where you had your hay setting, you're monitoring where your manure was put, you think, shoot, I think this is weed. And again, I'll link some publications in the resources so you guys can really see some good identifiers in case you want to print that off, take it with you, put it in the barn. So leave the plant in place, flag it, mark it so you don't forget where it's at. You can take some high quality pictures, so even just using your cell phone, but just making sure that your lens is clean when you do that, taking some high quality pictures, and then contact your extension agent. So somebody like Paige or Rachel, who you've heard from before, each of your counties has one of those, each of your counties has a page or a Rachel, and so contact them, and they'll be able to help you go on from there. If it is confirmed, we're going to hand pull that weed, beg it on site, destroy it, and then we're going to monitor. We're going to monitor that site for three to five years to make sure it doesn't come back. So the neat thing about you guys, or for you guys, is that there's actually more control options in a pasture situation and a hay situation than there is in a cropping situation like a cornfield or a soybean field. And so there are some options for you. However, we would rather just not have to help you deal with this. If we just don't bring it in or we monitor it right away and take care of it, that really is the best. But if you run into something, do not be afraid to call. Call right away. Call your extension agent. Call me. I'll point you to your extension agent if you don't know them, and we will help you figure out if it is that weed and how we deal with it. Okay, so why the heck am I so concerned about weeds? And especially this one this year. Why reduce weed problems? So weeds lower nutritional value of pasture. Okay, so especially this year, we have limited pasture right now. And then we have weeds growing out there that can be potentially harmful. And Kevin talked about some of those in our first couple of presentations. So we're not only have potentially harmful weeds, but also they lower the nutritional value that we have out there. So we're already struggling to get our nutrition this year, and now we have something adding to that. And so if we properly compost our manure, you can see in this table that it talks about the temperatures, which and the hours that it takes to kill 90% of the weed seed, and which weeds are reduced. Okay, so I talked about all of the other things. I talked about internal parasites and external parasites and weeds, all before I talked about composting, because composting is a way to manage a lot of the issues that I just talked about. So the benefits of composting, we can reduce weed seeds. We just talked about that. We can reduce pathogens. We can reduce our parasites. We reduce the nutrient loss. So we talked earlier about how we have potential nutrient loss and why we want to manage our manure, and we can increase nutrient stability so we're not losing those nutrients. Okay, so composting. What the heck is it? Basically it is a pile of manure or a row of manure, depending on what kind of equipment you have. That is piled, mixed, moistened, and decomposes. And so there are several different ways of going about it. You can see here that some people use a bin type system using pallets. Some people use a bin system that's more complex and has a cover on it. There's three different bins. Oftentimes there will be a bin that is active, a bin that is almost done, and then a bin that you're storing some of your carbon sources in. You don't have to have a bin. You can just have a pile out in a proper area. And so what's a proper area? The stockpiling guidelines that we talked about before with our soil guidelines, that would work. And so you can have something fancy. You don't have to have anything fancy. There's also a potential community composting project, so green mountain technologies. And there are other companies as well that have investal composting. So this was just a dumpster on the bottom with some greenhouse on top, and then a motor that went back and forth and up and down with an auger on it that composted. And so this project was actually being used as bedding reuse. So the manure was composted, and then it was used as bedding at the end. So that is a potential for having some bedding. Okay, back to the basics of composting. So moisture, I said, is one of the things that we need to have. How do you know if you have enough moisture in your manure? So you have piled your manure up, you're going to compost it this year, and you want to do it right because you want to have weed seed kill. You want to have parasite kill. You really want to have a great product at the end. So how do you know if you have enough? We do what's called the wet rag test. So you put your hand in the pile, you come out with a pan full of this compost, and you squeeze it. And so what happens is when you squeeze it, we want it to be like a rung out rag. So we don't want water to be dripping out when we squeeze it. We don't want it to be just completely dry and crumbly in our hands, like a dry rag. We want something that has, gives a little bit of moisture on our hand. It clumps a little, but not too much. It doesn't fall apart. That would be around 50% moisture, and that's what we're looking for. Temperature is the next thing that is important here. So ideally we want 131 degrees for 15 days. We're killing pathogens. We're killing weed seeds. We're killing parasites at that. And so how do we get that temperature up? Oftentimes it is by mixing. And so we can use a payloader, a front-end loader, a skid steer, a turner. That's a turner. That's a big turner in the picture. There's also smaller ones. So EcoMixer is a smaller scale turner. We can use a pitchfork, folks. Anything that is accessible to you, if you have bigger equipment, use it. If you have smaller equipment, use it. If you have a pitchfork, you can compost with a pitchfork. And so we want to mix it because it's going to help maintain the temperature. So what we're doing is we're dispersing the carbon and the nitrogen that's in there. So we have to have carbon, which would be like our straw, our wood chips. If you have wood shavings, basically our bedding material. And then on the nitrogen side of things, it's the manure and also the urine that you're collecting, especially if you have stalled animals and you're collecting that urine, that would be considered nitrogen as well. So what we're doing is we're mixing that together to make sure carbon and our nitrogen are getting found by the microbes that are in the manure so that they're able to compost, but also we're helping to maintain oxygen levels. So if we want to make sure that we're dispersing oxygen evenly and to do that, we are also dispersing our moisture evenly. So if we have it super wet over here and super dry over here, neither of those are going to work well. And so when we mix it, we can mix it back and forth and make sure that we're maintaining a consistent pile. I have here every 10 days to two weeks. It's typically when you turn. So I like to use a thermometer. I'm managing a pile right now and watching to see when my temp is going to break. It hasn't broke yet. It's spiked and now it's slowly going back down. But it's been there. It's been about, I think yesterday was nine days. And so I'm curious to see when it's going to go back down. But every 10 days to two weeks is what this cycle should be. That's what your heat cycle should be. If you have proper moisture, proper carbon and nitrogen, and you'll have a proper temp, then it will spike at 150. And then it should go drop down below 130. And then we want to turn that pile. Okay, so you can use a thermometer or just mark it on your calendar every two weeks. Go turn the burner pile. When is it done? So our temperature no longer spikes after turning. And we know that we had proper C to N. That's carbon and nitrogen. We had proper moisture levels in there. Everything was right. And it was heating. It was spiking and coming down and spiking and coming down as we were turning it. And now it just won't, the temp won't come up anymore. Very likely it is done. It can take as little as six weeks. It can take up to six months. It really depends on how you're managing it. So if you let that pile get above 160 degrees, we're going to kill the good stuff that's in there that's helping us compost. Can you still compost it? Yes, you just have to start over. And so that's why I say it can take six weeks. It can take six months. One of the reasons we like to compost is because we're reducing the volume. So if you are going to be spreading this manner or this compost, you can spread less. You can make a smaller product. So we reduce the volume of the product that's there by about 50%. So if you stockpile your manure, you'll see a shrink. You'll see a burn down. That's the initial heat cycle happening. But it won't heat again unless you turn it, mix it up, change where the products are. So change where the carbon and nitrogen are in the pile. Then you should see another heat cycle. So stockpiling is when we have one heat cycle and then composting is when we have several heat cycles and we really decompose that manure. Okay, so now what? We know that we are done. We know it's done. We let our pile cure. Basically that just means we let it reach ambient temperature. So the temperature that's outside or around us is ambient temperature. Nutrient consideration, so it's a more stable source of nitrogen. So we talked earlier that we want to stabilize the nutrients. So they're less likely to leach or run off. And especially more so we're talking about the nitrogen here. And so it's 20% available versus 50% available in the fresh manure. And so it's more stable. Also we want to then spread at agronomic rates. So it's considered a soil amendment. It can be used as a fertilizer. You can use it in your gardens. You can use it in your flower pots. You can use it in your tree rows. Or you can spread it on your pastures. But we do want to make sure that it's properly composted and that we're spreading at a rate that we actually do need. All right. We're going to talk now about some other manure management options. So other than composting. So we can move this manure off the farm. Some soil conservation districts may be interested in taking your manure and having your manure delivered to their composting sites. Some landfills as well compost. Local vegetable growers or community supported ag growers may be interested in having your horse manure or compost. So a lot of vegetable growers like horse manure. They say it's a very mild soil amendment. They don't have to worry about it being too hot as in too high of nitrogen. And so they really like using it. Start a community compost project. I would love for someone to do that. I would love to see it. And work with a custom manure hauler. So if you're going to work with a custom manure hauler because you're like, well, I need to get this manure off site. I have composted it or I'm not going to compost it, but either way I'm not spreading it on my property or I'm not spreading it on my pastures. Okay. So things you need to know if you're going to hire a custom hauler to come in. How much manure do you have to spread? So you need to tell them. You need to be able to tell them that. And again, this is going to be linked up back to last year's presentation where we talked about production. So you can say I have this many tons. Where are you going to spread it? So work with a local farmer or rancher if you don't want to spread it on your land. However, this is your responsibility as the horse owner or the land owner or the manure owner. It's not your haulers responsibility to take it for you. And so while we say that it's off farm management, it is still your responsibility to make sure that you can find that person who wants it. Can they get to your manure storage area? So we talked about this earlier. Where are you putting that manure storage? Are you putting it in an area that's convenient for your equipment? But are you also considering down the road long term? How are you going to manage that? And if you are going to have someone come in, how will their equipment get in there? Or how will you get it to them? Sometimes it requires you to literally move your pile. So take your bobcat, get in there with your bobcat and your pitchfork, move that manure to an area where they can get in or have a big enough area that they can that's accessible to them. And you can see in the next picture here, this is just some examples of their equipment. So some of our folks are using tractor pulled spreaders and those spreaders vary, but most often they're going to be rather large. Here is a truck type spreader. So these are called truck mounted spreaders. Again, and then that's a payloader that are loading most of our customer nerd haulers in the state are using payloaders. A couple have bobcats, but again, something to talk about when you call them. And so we have a list of our custom haulers I can link up in the resources if you are looking for someone. And then just a quick note, you can see that picture on the left there is a pile of netwrap and twine. Our customer nerd haulers don't like netwrap and twine any more than we do. And so that is something that if you have not taken that off and manage that during the feeding season and they come and spread, you will have to pay to have them cut it off their beaters because their beaters will grab it. And so you'll have to pay for that as well. Okay, some at home spreading options. And so by this, I mean, you're going to spread it instead of having a custom person come in. That's great. Typically these are smaller spreaders. They're pull type ground driven. So usually pulled by an ATV or a lawnmower. Some people like to hook up their horses and have them pull. So examples would be in the, did I take that picture out? No, I didn't. So here's a picture of a couple spreaders. And there's different sizes. There's different lengths. There's different ways that the beaters work and where the manure comes out. So it really just depends on what you're looking for. But we want to make sure that again, when we go and purchase one of these, typically they're in bushels. So you might say I have 20 ton of manure. How many bushels is that? And so how do we calculate or convert that? And so I put the calculations here, the conversion factors that you'll need. Again, the production of what your animals are actually going to make is in last year's presentation, which will be linked up. So you can calculate your production and then you can change it from tons to bushels and then you can decide what kind of spreader you actually need, depending on how many animals you have. Okay, so we've went through. We've talked about how to manage our parasites. We've talked about managing our weed seeds and then we're going to compost it or we're not. Depending on what you want to do, are you going to call a custom hauler? Are you going to spread it home? All of those things, if you're going to be spreading on your land, we'd really like you to sample your manure. And we would like you to do that because if you call and say, hey, how thick should I spread this stuff? We're going to ask you what's in it. What does that look like? It's going to be different if you have brood mayors versus if you have a gelding who's just standing around versus if you have performance horses. So it's going to really depend on what you have, what kind of animals you have, based on their physiological state and also what you're feeding them. Are you feeding them a grass hay because they're a maintenance animal? Are you feeding them some concentrates? So all of that is going to change the makeup of our manure. Okay, so we've sampled it and now we want you to calibrate that spreader. And you can use this method whether we're using a small spreader or a large spreader, whether our custom haulers are coming or whether you're doing it yourself, we can calibrate that spreader. So we have all of this information available. Again, you can contact your local extension agent, ask them about manure spreader calibration and they will hook up with you and send you this handy little publication that has pictures of how to do it. And so this is called the sheet method. So what happens here is we spread manure over these tarps. So we lay tarps out, we spread manure over them and then we weigh to see how much manure is on that tarp. Then we do some calculations to figure out then how many pounds or how many tons are on our acres of land. Okay, so just a couple of quick spreading considerations. So there are no restrictions in North Dakota as far as when we can spread. In other states there are and so if you are from a different state, make sure you check with your local Department of Environmental Quality to see what those restrictions are. Miner can be land applied to frozen ground. However, you need to make sure that you're containing runoff or is runoff going to be a potential issue. Use common sense. So don't spread before during or after large rain events. Hopefully we're going to have a large rain event here in the next couple of days is what's been predicted. And so probably don't spread manure right now. But we can spread any time after that when we know that it's not going to rain and we want to make sure that we're not doing that during a rain event because we're going to have then that potential leaching of nutrients. Don't spread over water quality. We'll be compromised. All right, let's wrap it up and take some questions. So manure contains valuable nutrients that plants need. If the nutrients are not used, they become a pollutant. So remember, we either have nutrients or we have waste. How will you manage your horse manure? Where will you store it? Where will you spread it? Where will you compost it? Will you compost it? Will you spread it raw? Just a lot of questions to ask as you're getting animals. And if you have a couple of animals and you're thinking, well, I want more, think not just of the joy that they're going to bring you, but also they're going to bring you some manure when they come to. So how do we manage that? We have to make sure that we're ready for all parts of those animals to enter our property. Composting reduces weed seeds, pathogens, and the total volume of manure that we have. Proper manure management can lead to reduced parasite load that's both internal and external and use common sense from spreading. With that, we have a few resources here, just contacting myself, contacting your local extension agents, and some resources as far as the other presentations that we talked about. These will all be linked up and sent out in your email. And I will stop talking. So are there any questions about manure management? I know we had just one comment in the chat box from Brooks Warner. He had seen a huge infestation in Barnes County of weeds from sunflower screenings brought in from Kansas. So that was one example that he was able to witness firsthand within the state. Yeah. And that was an excellent example of the potential that can happen even this year. Because we're going to be bringing in feeds, not just hay, maybe even concentrates. These were screenings from other states, other places, and potentially infecting our own land and property with those weed seeds. So it's OK to bring that stuff in. We just have to remember where we're unloading it, where we're feeding it, where our manure is going, so that we can watch, monitor and manage it. And then Paige also commented to keep in mind that certified weed pre-hay means that the field was inspected for noxious weeds, but most hay crops, even the certified weed pre-hay, will have some amount of weeds in them. Yes. Great point. If there are no other questions and we are done with the polls, we can certainly be done. So next week, before we're done, next week we have a treat coming at us. So we have Dr. Erica Berg joining us to talk about conditioning your horse. So this is something that several of you have asked for. We're excited to bring Erica in for her first guest appearance with us. And so she's going to talk about getting your horse ready for performance. What does that look like? How do we know if they're actually in shape? And so I'm really excited to see what she has to say next week. And that'll be our last one. So the last one in the series, and then of course, you're off and running. Dennis, June and you guys are ready to go for the season. So with that, thanks for joining us today. I hope you guys have a great week and we'll see you again next week.