Kewaunee County farm demonstrates new manure technology

Farmers in Kewaunee County are still doing what they can to minimize the impact to the area's groundwater after it was found to have contaminated soils and water.

Around this time last year we spoke to farmer Lee Kinnard, who shows us a natural bark filter as a way to filter water on the farm.

Peninsula Pride Farms is still exploring every option to remedy a decades-old issue.

Wednesday, farmers learned about an environmentally safer method of spreading liquid manure. The agrometer system, in from Germany, is the only one of its kind in the United States.

"This is a system that we can apply to a living crop during the growing season, fertilizing with our nutrients to a living crop," Nathen Nysse, a certified crop advisor with Tilth Agronomy, said.

The system is about 120 feet wide. It resembles a farm irrigation system hanging across a large tractor, with numerous hoses dangling from the arms.

The idea is to apply nutrients close to the ground, minimizing pathogens in the air.

Kewaunee County Board member Lee Luft calls this a positive step.

"Everything that we can do to minimize that more applications with less being put down for each application, taking some of that liquid out of the equation with composting, those kinds of things are certainly a step in the right direction towards minimization," Luft said.

This field day was meant to show farmers there are better ways to grow crops in an area that already has shallow soils and fractured bedroom.

"One of the goals with Peninsula Pride Farms is water quality. We're focusing on water quality, surface water and groundwater. This is an attempt, this is our way of showing that we can find ways of putting this nutrient on the field in the right place, right time, and make manure less of a bad thing," Kinnard said.