Valorizing pelletized hen manure as a nitrogen fertilizer for northern agriculture

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La ferme avicole Paul Richard et fis inc established their family farm in 1954 in Rivière-Héva, Quebec and developed a profitable egg production operation that employs 20 full-time, year-round employees and supplies wholesalers and groceries throughout northern Québec and northern Ontario. The farm's vision is to increase farming and rural economic development in their region, which is a challenge given the northern climate and soil conditions. The company-specific problem is how to sustain soil fertility and get good yields of high-quality cereal and oilseed crops to feed their laying hens, rather than trucking corn and soybean from southern Quebec. For ecological and economic reasons, they would prefer to sustain the soil fertility using local fertilizing materials, rather than purchasing expensive inorganic fertilizers that must be transported from the south. Pelletized hen manure, a product of poultry farms, is a valuable fertilizer. However, its contribution to soil nitrogen fertility in heavy clay soils for cereal production during a short growing season is very poorly understood. Valorizing pelletized hen manure as a nitrogen fertilizer for northern agriculture requires information on the susceptibility of the hen manure to nitrogen volatilization, in the barn and in the field, as well as the pattern of nitrogen release after pelletized hen manure is applied to the field. Laboratory and in-field testing that can be done by engaging with McGill are the scientific basis for nitrogen release from pelletized hen manure in current and future growing seasons, by controlled incubations, analysis of the resin-extractable ammonium and nitrate concentrations in soil, and evaluation of nitrogen uptake in barley. The farm will benefit from better knowledge of the nitrogen fertilizer value of pelletized hen manure, which is applied to 650 acres of their own farmland. La ferme avicole Paul Richard et fis inc has more pelletized hen manure than they can use, and this Engage project will give them the necessary information to market hen manure as a 'higher-value fertilizer', for sale to agricultural producers and industry (e.g., for afforestation and mine land reclamation) in the regions of Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Chibougamau, northern Québec and northern Ontario.