Humboldt County
Resource Conservation District
5630 South Broadway
Eureka , CA 95503
ph: (707) 444-9708 ext 115
hcrcd
Humboldt Agricultural Management and Enhancement Programs
Improving Water Quality and Manure Management of Humboldt County Dairies
Water Quality, Agriculture, and
the Resource Conservation District
The Humboldt County Resource Conservation District (HCRCD) was formed in 1987 as a special district of the County of Humboldt. The district’s function is to assist private landowners in voluntary planning, design, and installation of soil and water conservation practices in Humboldt County.The HCRCD has previously been awarded three State Water Resources Control Board grants to help Humboldt County Dairy Operators in the Eel River Delta and the Humboldt Bay area bring their operations up to current standards by implementing state of the art water quality management systems through practices and demonstrations of such practices as: Manure distribution, heavy use area protection, roof runoff management, and waste storage structures. Last year the HCRCD was awarded a fourth grant and is currently working with dairy operators on many new and innovative practices on their dairies.Contain, store, and apply at the correct time to the land. These are the three key concepts to managing manure effectively. They also can lead to many challenges, as every dairy in Humboldt County that we work with must be retrofitted in order to meet current water quality standards. Often we are faced with the challenge to put state of the art manure management technology to work on a facility with structures and a layout almost unchanged from the early 1900’s. To make matters even more complicated every dairy is different, and every operator is different in their management philosophies. The HCRCD must work with every landowner on a one on one basis to create a fully custom idea of what will work on their facility, what will the landowner be the most happy with, and what will fit within the budget of the operation.In order to assist landowners the HCRCD provides design services, permitting help, and on selected projects, a cost share payment to the Dairy Operator for project implementation. All projects must fall into a category for enhancing manure containment, storage, or application to land.Containment
Containment is the necessary first step to preventing pollution. All manure that is generated from the dairy cow when she is off of the pasture and on the facility must be contained. Also any water hitting manure, and becoming contaminated must also be contained. Think of it as you would a fence around your property, you are essentially containing everything within that boundary from getting out, but if the fence is broken it does not do its job.storage
Storage: All of that contained manure and contaminated water must be stored somewhere. This is where dairy operator preference is key to the success of the manure storage system. Manure can successfully be stored in two ways. It can be stored in a solid state or it can be stored in a liquid state. Most dairies in Humboldt County employ a little of both. There is no set time that the operator must store the manure for, but 120 days during the winter is what most operators and the HCRCD are striving for. To store solid manure specially designed concrete bunkers are employed. Solid manure can also be composted in a windrow. Composted solid manure does not give off much of a smell, and is readily used by plants in the pasture. Liquid manure is stored in either an earthen pond or a concrete structure.There are other aspects to storage too. These include any project that can be done on a dairy to increase the amount of time manure can be stored. An example of this would be placing gutters on all of the structures to divert clean rainwater away from a contamination source. All of that contaminated rainwater would have to go into storage. By removing that water the diary operator has just increased his storage time dramatically. A recent HCRCD project installed a large gutter system on a Ferndale Dairy. By diverting all of the clean rainwater we were able to keep over 1.5 million gallons of clean water a year from becoming contaminated and having to be stored!
New Roof System Gutter System on Dairy Barnapplication
In order to place the manure onto the land as fertilizer at the correct time of the year many technologies must be employed. When placing stored solid manure onto the pasture the most proven technology is a manure spreader pulled by a tractor. When placing liquid manure the game gets a little more complicated. The most common approach to the application of liquid manure is the pipe and sprinkler approach. Specially designed buried PVC irrigation line is placed to take the manure from the storage to the field. In order to get it into the pipe at the right pressure a specially designed manure pump must be used. When it gets to the part of pasture that the operator wants to fertilize the manure is applied with a large sprinkler gun. The gun is specially designed to place manure at certain rates depending on the speed the operator sets it to run at. Therefore, very precise applications of manure as fertilizer can be made. Many other interesting and cutting edge technologies and techniques can be employed when handling liquid manure. For example if no pipeline exists to get the liquid manure out a large tank pulled by a tractor can be used to place the manure.
Liquid Manure Tank and Spreader in Action
Underground Mainline Traveling Manure Irrigation Sprinklernutrient management planning
One new service that the HCRCD recently began to provide to dairy operators is the creation of custom Nutrient Management Plans or NMPs. NMPs are a useful tool to be used by the dairy operator to apply manure at the correct amounts to maximize forage quality and quantity, but to protect against harming water quality. This planning is especially beneficial to Certified Organic dairy operations where commercial fertilizer can not be utilized. Conventional dairy operators can also benefit as the prices of commercial fertilizer skyrockets.While figuring out correct application rates for fertilizer is not a new science by any stretch, creating NMPs for Humboldt County is. The HCRCD is leading the way in developing protocols to take the plan from start to finish and give the dairy operator up to date and useful information. Why is this so difficult? NMPs are common across the entire US on dairy facilities from coast to coast. However most of these dairies are large feedlot operations, that generate more manure than the land can handle without pollution. Humboldt County Dairies are all pasture based dairies, relatively very small in size when compared to other dairies in California. Humboldt County Dairies do not have too much manure, often the opposite is found. The challenge really lies in the fact that Humboldt County dairies are not cookie cutter, they are all very different from land size, herd size, and resource concerns. So while say Fresno County can develop an NMP process that will be true with little modification for 90% of their dairies, every NMP in Humboldt County must be custom made, one of a kind, with no two alike.The HCRCD has partnered with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), the University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) and the Regional Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB) to develop state of the art NMPs for a few dairies as a trail run, and plans to expand its services in the next few years. Why is the HCRCD leading this effort? To enhance water quality for you and the environment, and to help sustain small pasture based dairy operations within our county. Conserving resources and adding to the economic viability of our community, that’s what the HCRCD is all about.
Healthy Pasture on a Ferndale DairyHEADWATERS FUND NUTRIENT MANAGEMENT PLANNING PROJECT
This grant expands work under HCRCD’s Dairy Program. The HCRCD will focus on working one-on-one with up to four dairy producers to provide technical assistance and scientific testing leading to the development of individualized nutrient management plans. The funds will also be used to enhance the capacity of the HCRCD to get the training and gain expertise needed to contract with NRCS to develop and assist local dairy operators to implement Comprehensive Nutrient Management Plans (CNMPs).
Funding Agency: Headwaters Fund / County of Humboldt
Completed 2011humboldt agriculture management and enhancement program-american recovery and reinvestment act of 2009 (arra)
Through a grant from the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) HCRCD is continuing its successful work of reducing animal waste and related pollution to the Eel and Mad-Redwood watersheds. This is a "principle forgiveness" loan for water storage, waste handling, and nutrient management practices and systems at local participating dairies. This program demonstrates current technology in dairy waste management in the Humboldt Bay area.
Funding for this project has been provided in full or in part through an agreement with the State Water Resources Control Board. The contents of this document do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the State Water Resources Control Board, nor does mention of trade names or commercial products constitute endorsement or recommendation for use. (Gov. Code, § 7550, 40 CFR § 31.20.)
nrcs cooperative agreement eqip implementation
Through this agreement, the RCD with work with Natural Resource Conservation Services (NRCS) to proivde technical assistance, administrative assistance and producer outreach regarding Farm Bill programs and requirements related to EQIP, CIG B, CCPI and CSP programs.
Funding Agency: USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service
Sutter County RCD / NRCS Contribution Agreement - Conservation Planner support
Conservation Planner training through NRCS
Funding Agency: USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service
5630 South Broadway
Eureka , CA 95503
ph: (707) 444-9708 ext 115
hcrcd
