Assessment of Beef Cattle Manure Management in The Southern High Plains

This chapter assesses past use of playas and examines Southern Plains manure management policies that impact water quality. It assesses the impact of long-term manure management in an active beef feedlot and adjacent playa prior to the implementation of the Environmental Protection Agency National Pollutant Elimination Systems permit and evaluates the potential impact of manure-derived nitrogen and phosphorus from land application as an alternative to manure storage in playa. Study sites were selected to examine the past effectiveness of the beef feedlot and storage playa for manure management. Chemical results of the soil samples are averaged by depth and used to construct a composite distribution of nutrients beneath the ground surface. All twelve core sites for the beef feedlot are used to show the vertical distribution of nutrients beneath the ground surface, while for the playa site, the chemical results of three cores were used to construct a composite diagram.