Envisioning the manureshed: Toward comprehensive integration of modern crop and animal production

The specialization and intensification of agriculture have produced incredible gains in productivity, quality, and availability of agricultural commodities but have resulted in the separation of crop and animal production. A by-product of this separation has been the accumulation of manure regions where animal production is concentrated. Enter the manureshed, an organizing framework for integrating animal and crop production where budgeting of manure nutrients is used to strategically guide their recycling and reuse in agricultural production systems where manure resources are of highest value. To move beyond regional nutrient balance analyses into the transformational realm required to mitigate wicked manure problems, manureshed management requires recognition of the challenges to systematically reorganizing resource flows. In better integrating crop and livestock systems, manureshed management must account for the unique nature of managing manure nutrients within individual livestock industries, anticipate trade-offs in substituting manure for commercial fertilizer, promote technologies to refine manure, and engage extensive social networks across scales that range from the farmgate to nation and beyond.

Automated summary

Specialization and intensification in agriculture have led to separation of crop and animal production, resulting in the accumulation of manure in concentrated regions. To address this issue, manureshed management provides an organizing framework for integrating animal and crop production and strategically recycling manure nutrients in agricultural systems. This approach requires reorganizing resource flows and considering the unique characteristics of managing manure nutrients in different livestock industries.