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138
Building SoilS for Better CropS: SuStainaBle Soil ManageMent
a case study
darrell Parks
Manhattan, kansas
Even if Darrell Parks didn’t like working with hogs, he
Parks sometimes lets older sows out to pasture on
would still raise them on his 600-acre farm in the Flint
some of his fields, where they spread their own manure.
Hills of Kansas, if only for the manure that makes up a key
He cautions, however, against pasturing young pigs on
part of his soil fertility program. Each year, Parks’s farm
alfalfa. “You’d think they’d balance their ration better,” he
produces forty-five sows plus corn, milo, wheat, soybeans,
says, “but they don’t—they overeat.”
and alfalfa.
For most of their lives, Parks’s hogs are raised on half
Parks spot-treats his land with hog manure to help
of a 10-acre field. He plants the remaining 5 acres to corn.
areas needing extra fertility. He likes how targeting prob-
Once the corn is harvested, he moves the hogs and their
lem areas with thicker applications of manure corrects soil
pens over to the “clean ground” of corn stubble. “Going
micronutrient deficiencies. “I’ve been working to better
back and forth like this seems to work well in keeping the
utilize farm-produced manure and cover crops as well as a
worms down,” he says. And he says that the 50–60 pounds
crop rotation and management system that will allow me
of N per acre put down with the hogs’ manure helps grow
to eliminate purchased fertilizer, herbicides, and insec-
“some pretty good corn” in that field each year.
ticides,” says Parks, who received a grant from USDA’s
Parks notes that his tillage regime, on which he is
Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE)
dependent for weed control in his organic system, makes
program to hone his use of manure on cropland. He was
maintaining and improving his soil organic matter content
successful in that endeavor, and his cropland has been
especially challenging. That’s why he remains committed
certified organic since 1996.
to integrating the use of both animal and “green” manures
Parks’s crops are raised mainly in two rotations. In one
on his farm.
rotation, alfalfa is grown for three years, followed by a year
In response to organic grain and fuel price spikes, he
each of corn and soybeans before returning to alfalfa. In
decided recently to reduce the number of hogs he raises from
the other, he plants Austrian winter peas in the late fall fol-
sixty to forty-five. Striving for economic sustainability, he is
lowing wheat harvest. The peas, incorporated in the spring,
constantly weighing the pros and cons of becoming more self-
are followed with a cash crop of milo or soybeans prior to a
sufficient by raising his own feed for the hogs versus taking
fall- or spring-planted wheat crop.
advantage of the price premiums for organic grains.
To ensure a sufficient nutrient supply for his wheat
“It’s a hard decision,” he says. “Right now, if I cut down
crops, Parks typically treats his wheat fields with liquid
on hogs, maybe it would be better economically. But if I get
manure at a rate of approximately 660 gallons per acre. He
out [of raising hogs entirely], it’s not easy to get back in.”
collects this manure in a concrete pit adjacent to a building
For now, he is betting that over the longer term, he’s
where sows are housed for brief periods during breeding or
better off keeping his hogs. “A lot of people don’t like the
when being sold. The liquid manure, for which he does not
idea of how pigs are raised” within a conventional opera-
typically obtain a nutrient analysis, “catches a lot of rainfall
tion, he says. “We’re meeting [the demand of] a niche
and is fairly dilute—[essentially] high-powered water,” he
market in its infancy that is sure to grow.”
says. “I avoid wet conditions when spreading and try to hit
—uPdated by aMy kreMen
the wheat in March or April during a dry period on a still
day, before [the wheat] is too big.”
139
building soils For better CroPs: sustainable soil ManageMent
