As poultry production booms in Kentucky, more Farmers are using chicken feces as fertilizer, but there is still much to learn about maximizing its potential. University of Kentucky Associate Extension specialist Dr. Brad Lee and his team have built a rainfall simulation plot in a corn field in Calloway County where they’ve treated the soil with two different types of poultry litter and later take measurements of the run-off. Typically poultry farmers apply two different chemicals to the chicken feces to keep ammonia levels down, sodium sulphate or aluminum sulphate. Lee says too much will kill the chicks, and then the remnants stick to the litter.
“After two or three flocks, or however many flocks the grower wants to raise they will go in and scrape all that litter off and that litter goes into a pile and the poultry producer sells that litter to agriculture or applies it to their own field as fertilizer.” Lee said.
This simulation tests which poultry litter holds phosphorous to the field best. Lee says studies in the past have shown that aluminum phosphate is better at holding phosphate on the field, however it has never been tried in the state of Kentucky or row crops. The team hopes to have analysis by this spring.
