And as the number of chickens increases to more than 150 million birds, so does the amount of litter they produce. Litter is actually a valuable fertilizer. If applied to fields at the correct rate it can reduce a producer s fertilizer bill, supply valuable micro-nutrients like zinc and copper and improve soil quality through the addition of organic matter. As with other fertilizers, apply litter at rates that don t oversupply phosphate, potash or nitrogen.
Poultry litter contains nitrogen and phosphate.
But most plants need more nitrogen than phosphate. So if you meet a crop s nitrogen requirements with poultry litter, you ll oversupply phosphate and, in many cases, potash. Excess phosphate poses an environmental threat. Runoff from fields where large quantities of litter have been applied can contain a lot of phosphorus, which can seriously impact water quality. On the other hand, plants will readily take up more potash than they need.