Frozen Ground

Frozen Ground Management

Proper manure management while the soil is frozen and/or snow-covered is critical to protecting surface water quality and farm profitability. The UW Discovery Farms Program gives many presentations each year on manure management, and factsheets are being developed summarizing the data and information generated by the program related to this topic.

Click Here to listen to a presentation on this topic given at the Manure Expo in State College, PA (Click on 'Session 2' to listen to presentation and view slides)

Click Here to listen to a radio segment on frozen ground and the risk for runoff as spring approaches

Related Materials

3 Documents


BF6. Sediment and Nutrient Loss from an out-winter paddock area on a grass- based dairy. Brief (2 pages) Presentation (34 pages) Factsheet (6 pages) Sediment and nutrient loss on the Breneman Farm for the 2006 and 2007 field years. UW Discovery Farms used this research for improving soil fertility on grass-based Wisconsin dairy farms and to reduce these losses.
RB7. Manure Applications on Frozen and/or Snow Covered Ground Brief (2 pages) Factsheet (6 pages) With a significant amount of runoff occurring during the wintertime, manure applications during this time period need to be done with care. This report summarizes what we learned from winter manure application at Riechers Beef.
Runoff Lessons: Frozen and Snow-Covered Ground File (2 pages) Use this short factsheet to understand the key factors that lead to runoff while the ground is frozen and/or snow-covered.