The manure industry in Iowa is expansive, involving over 550 businesses that manage both liquid and solid manure applications across the state. In the spring of 2024, we surveyed 562 commercial manure application business. We received responses from 90 commercial manure applicators (16% response rate), offering a detailed look at the industry's practices, scale, and significance. These findings are valuable for farmers, businesses, and stakeholders engaged in manure management and decision making around manure utilization and fertilization. Over the next few months, we’ll be sharing information we learned from these surveys.
Manure Application Businesses by
Manure Handling Type in Iowa
The survey revealed that the
majority of manure applicators in Iowa deal with liquid manure. Of the 90
businesses that responded:
- 58 businesses
handle liquid manure exclusively.
- 11 businesses handle liquid and solid manure
- 21 businesses handle solid manure exclusively
This implies for Iowa’s manure industry that 64% of businesses focus on liquid
manure, 23% focus on solid manure, and 12% apply both liquid and solid manure.
Taking this a step further, assuming this is a representative sample of the
overall industry, this implies that of the 562 commercial manure businesses in
Iowa 362 business apply liquid manure, 131 apply solid manure, and 69 apply
both liquid and solid manure.
Market Share of Liquid Manure Application
Iowa generates approximately 13
billion gallons of liquid manure each year excluding rainfall. Given 2023
was a dry year, this estimate should be an accurate representation of manure
volume available in the year the survey was conducted. According to the survey
data, the responding companies apply about 21% of the state’s total liquid
manure. With an estimated 562 commercial manure businesses in Iowa, and
assuming 77% apply liquid manure, approximately 431 businesses are involved in
liquid manure application. Extrapolating from the survey, commercial manure
applicators handle roughly 8 billion gallons of the state’s total liquid
manure output—about 62%.
If you are interested in more
information contained within the survey, take a look at our video presentation where data is summarized.
