Summer is a good time to double-check your manure storage for its structural soundness, as well as ensuring you’ll have the flexibility to manage the stored manure as the valuable fertilizer resource that it is.

In his June 29 Manure Scoop blog, Daniel Andersen, aka Dr. Manure, discusses proper maintenance and management of your operation’s manure storage whether it is an earthen basin, slurry store or a deep pit to make sure it will keep functioning well for years to come.

Proper management and maintenance is necessary to prevent manure from overflowing or discharging from a storage system. Regardless the storage type, the basic principles to maintaining and managing the storage structure are similar. In any case, frequent evaluation and preventative maintenance will significantly reduce your risk and keep your manure where you want it.

In his blog Andersen, Iowa State University Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Department assistant professor, presents four main areas of concern to proper manure system maintenance.

This full blog, and all of Dr. Manure’s blogs, can be found at http://themanurescoop.blogspot.ca.