If you build it...
Fifteen hundred (1,500) people descended upon a 55-acre field of freshly mowed Annual Ryegrass/Red Clover cover crop near Auburn, New York on July 17-18 for the North American Manure Expo (NAME). This is the first year New York has hosted and it was a hit, with attendee demographics almost equally split between custom manure applicators, industry/agency/university personnel, crop producers and animal owners.
NAME is an annual, international event that is hosted in a new location each year. NAME was launched in 2001 in Wisconsin by (what eventually became) the Professional Nutrient Applicators Association of Wisconsin and the University of Wisconsin Extension Nutrient Management Team. The event was put together at the request of custom manure applicators who wanted to see similar equipment go head-to-head with their competitors. It has been hosted in Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Iowa, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Indiana and now New York in the United States; and in Ontario, Canada.
The event has evolved to include three main attractions: an industry trade show, manure technology demonstrations and educational seminars. Event tents are erected on harvested farmland each year and three million dollars of manure handling equipment is placed and polished only to be put to work hours later during live-action demonstrations. The education tents were at capacity this year on the morning of day two. The topics for the education sessions were safety, climate and greenhouse gas mitigation, agronomy and soil health, and water quality.
From setup to tear down and even during the show, the mantra, “slow is smooth, smooth is fast,” was repeated several times. With the erratic weather we’ve been experiencing this growing season, harvest, final haying and fall’s work are sure to be difficult. I implore you to repeat the above-mentioned mantra over and over during the next couple months. Slow down. Take note of yourself and your surroundings. Take a nap. Drink some water. Eat, stretch, visit. Slow down for just a minute. Be safe.
You can find NDSU Extension Farm and Ranch Safety resources here: https://www.ndsu.edu/agriculture/ag-hub/ag-topics/farm-safety-health/farm-safety
If the stress of finishing all the things this fall starts to get to you, please reach out to North Dakota First Link (https://myfirstlink.org/) or call 2-1-1 anytime.
The 2025 North American Manure Expo will be held in Wauseon, Ohio on July 30-31. Visit https://www.manureexpo.ca/ to learn more as planning commences this fall.
Mary Keena
Mary.Keena@ndsu.edu
Extension Specialist, livestock environmental management
NAME board member, Cooperative Extension representative
