ALREADY strong demand for chicken manure from broadacre croppers has risen off the charts this year, according to SA's two main suppliers.
The rising cost of synthetic fertilisers and availability concerns have led to a huge rise in enquiries to Nuleaf Organics and SA Chicken Manure, with farmers looking to spread the manure on paddocks prior to seeding as a more economical nutrient source.
Both suppliers say there will be little, if any, stockpiling this year.
Kelly Matthews from SA Chicken Manure said they were unable to meet the escalating demand because major chicken producers are already at their maximum processing capacity and unable to house any more birds.
The company have a facility at Lower Light, and operations at Balaklava and in the Riverland.
They supply large quantities of the organic matter-rich manure to croppers on the Yorke Peninsula, throughout the Riverland and across to Mildura, Vic.
"While we always sell out each year, we try to add a few customers each year, but current demand is just ridiculous," she said.
"We'd love to (be able to meet the demand) but the reality is we can't."
Mrs Matthews said the business, and other chicken manure suppliers, were becoming more "creative" to bridge the gap between demand and supply.
"We're doing more cow manure than we've ever done, we're blending more and looking for other opportunities because the demand for organic fertilising material is significantly higher than it used to be," she said.
Based at Mannum, Nuleaf clean out chicken farms in the Murraylands and Adelaide Hills, and have another group at Port Wakefield who clean out local sheds, with manure delivered to farmers on the Yorke Peninsula and in the Mid North.
They supply about 80,000 tonnes a year to broadacre croppers, horticulturists and vegetable growers.
Nuleaf's Tammy Haby said while the company had experience a steady rise in demand for the past few years, it had reached a new stratosphere in 2022.
She said while increased demand in previous years could be attributed to word of mouth between croppers interested in the manure's nutrient content and organic matter, rising synthetic fertiliser prices had "definitely had a big impact" this year.
"Going back only a couple of years ago we would sometimes struggle to distribute all the manure so we would end up with a stockpile at the end of April when demand typically slows," Mrs Haby said.
"We'd always have enough but now we don't to the point where we've had to turn people away left, right and centre, because there was so many people enquiring that had never used it before," she said.
"Either price or access to the normal fertilisers were pushing people to consider it."
Economics and soil benefits stack up for Schusters
Giving themselves a soil phosphorus buffer and cutting back on the volumes of starting fertiliser are just two of the benefits the Schuster family, Freeling, have reaped from their use of chicken manure application.
The Schusters, hay and grain producers, have been spreading chicken manure prior to seeding for more than 20 years and cover a third of their farm each year in a three-year rotation.
Corbin Schuster said chicken manure was advantageous for their enterprise because it was available, fairly consistent in its nutrient content and relatively cheap at $25 a tonne plus freight, a price which has remained steady in recent years when compared to MAP, DAP and urea.
"It doesn't contain heaps of nitrogen, but it's a really good source of phosphorus and that's what we spread it for," he said.
"Through soil testing over the last ten years, we've noticed our phosphorus levels come up to the point where we have a significant buffer and could technically leave out our starting fertiliser or drop it drastically. We'd still have enough in the soil buffer to meet the needs of the crop early on.
"We've dropped our starting fertiliser down from 100 kilograms a hectare to 70-80kg/ha of MAP.
"If, for some reason, we couldn't access fertiliser we'd still be ok for a year because of that buffer."
Mr Schuster said they were lucky to be located within a reasonable distance to chicken sheds at Port Wakefield, on the Adelaide Plains and Murray Bridge.
He said application of the manure also fit well into their calendar of operations with most applied between March and May, after harvest and straw baling and prior to seeding.
"We're fortunate in this area that we've got a huge supply of what used to be considered waste, but is now considered a potential source of nutrients," Mr Schuster said.
"We also like chicken manure because you're returning stuff back to the soil, which has originally come from the soil - straw used for bedding and the grain which is the feed ration for the chook has all come from the paddock.
"As much as high fertiliser prices are annoying, it's good that it's encouraging farmers to view things, which were previously viewed as waste, as a source of nutrients.
"The idea wasn't entertained previously because it was easier to go out and buy MAP or DAP."
Mr Schuster said things to consider for growers weighing up chicken manure application was the need for a specialised spreader, proximity to sheds and freight costs, and the fact that a long-term commitment was needed to reap benefits.
