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Livestock genetics, nutrition, and feeding, housing and management practices have changed significantly since manure production and nutrient excretion standards were last revised. A comprehensive, interdisciplinary effort initiated through ASAE is aimed at developing new data and methods to replace the current ASAE D384.1 Manure Production and Characteristics. Contributing expertise from the agricultural engineering and animal science sectors is being utilized in the development of new manure production data with an emphasis on dietary/production models to predict manure and nutrient excretion.

In this effort, multi-disciplinary work groups composed of scientists from several universities are developing predictive models for manure and nutrient production for dairy, beef, swine, poultry, and horses. This paper presents preliminary values for manure and nutrient production based on models and practices that are considered representative in the industry today.

Currently, models have been developed to predict manure total solids, nitrogen, and phosphorus. These data are presented with current literature values for comparison in this paper. Dietary models predicted less total solids production than literature values for all classes of swine, and greater nitrogen and phosphorus production for finishing pigs and less or similar nutrient values for the other swine classes. Lactating dairy cow dietary models predicted greater total solids and nitrogen, and slightly less phosphorus production than literature values. Beef dietary models predicted significantly less values for total solids, nitrogen and phosphorus. Differences between dietary model predictions and existing literature values are significant in some cases. These differences may have an important impact on the development of manure management systems, and nutrient management plans.