Demonstrating Sustainable Integration of Value-Added Manure Products into 21st Century Farming

The purpose of this award is for the grantee to demonstrate that animal agriculture can be sustained by producing and exporting value-added manure products from farms with manure surpluses to fauns that have traditionally relied upon inorganic fertilizers and to the horticultural operations that comprise the Green Industry.St. Andrews Center and the UD College of Agriculture and Natural Resources to will evaluate pelletized broiler litter, dairy and equine composts as organic fertilizers on the 1,500 acre St. Andrews School farm. Agronomic crop studies will be at the field scale (10+ acres) while vegetable/specialty crop projects will be in small plots; horticultural projects will use lawns, athletic fields, gardens, and greenhouses. Large-scale demonstrations will be installed at St. Andrews showing innovations management of riparian buffers separating cropland used for our demonstrations from water bodies that enhance water quality, farm ecological conditions, and wildlife Habitat. The findings will be available for education purposes on a website, through host field days for farmers and the Green Industry, agriculture and natural resource camps/workshops for K-16 teachers and students, and community education workshops designed to show the full value of farming to urban and suburban adults.