Progress 08/01/22 to 07/31/23
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for this project is the community that uses this manure data. This includes farmers developing manure management plans, engineers designing manure storages, state and federal regulators establishing best management practices for manure land application, laboratory managers assessing their performance in a region for manure analysis, or researchers modeling nutrient cycling and gas emissions. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?One graduate student has been training in research and database management skills throughout this project. She has also attended several conferences and workshops for professional development, including presenting her work on this project. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Yes, please see the products listed above. We also hosted two virtual open houses in May 2024 for our stakeholders to view and comment on the current manure database and it's search features. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Developing data standards and evaluating historical data We will continue to onboard the labs that we already have existing relationships with. Our first official set of data will be uploaded to Ag Data Commons in early 2024. Then we plan to have annual updates thereafter. The graduate student will complete the historical data analysis Engaging Stakeholders A stakeholder meeting will occur in early 2024 to demonstrate updates to the database and search capabilities A small set of stakeholders will be selected to do some informal evaluation of the database search features to see if there are any errors and what can be improved for data-friendliness Database development As mentioned, we'll continue to upload new data through December 2023. All data through that point will be uploaded to the Ag Data Commons and a DOI assigned. The ManureDB.umn.edu website search features will use this version of the database. New data after 2023 will be uploaded on an annual basis. Every annual iteration will be added to Ag Data Commons as well We will finish the filtering capabilities on the website so that farm anonymity is preserved (no fewer than 5 samples of a specific manure type in a given year in a given state/region will be shown). We will make updates as needed according to stakeholder suggestions We will continue to build the database and search tools to ensure they are meeting FAIR principals.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
With an increasing public concern about animal manure issues, better manure characteristics information is needed to better manage and utilize this resource while protecting our natural and public resources. Up-to-date and dynamic manure characteristics information will also enhance opportunities for technologies to extract energy and recycle the nutrients in the manure for crop production. Our aim is to design and implement a scalable and dynamic database and management system of manure analysis results from around the US. During this project period we continued to connect with stakeholders and other community members to continue developing manure data standards and collect initial manure nutrient analysis data. Developing data standards and evaluating historical data Graduate student continued to update our data standaridization template as needed when new situations arose. Historical data was collected from 14 new labs and beginning summaries were developed. These were presented at several conferences. Engaging Stakeholders The stakeholder advisory committee met virtually in March 2023, with the goals of providing updates on database development and to discuss proposals for increasing data specificity. Two Virtual Open Houses were held in May 2023 to introduce the database to current and potential lab partners, the stakeholder advisory committee, and other persons who expressed specific interest in the database. The total number of attendees was 22. Feedback was solicited and prioritized for the developer team. An 8-hr hybrid work session was held in July 2023 with the stakeholder advisory team with the objectives to: document database development, develop rules and structure for sample categorization, sustain database integrity, and gather project evaluation feedback. Database development At the time of this report, we had 14 labs with fully executed Data Use Agreements in place (and we received data from all 14 labs) and 11 additional labs that were considering joining us. We continued to work on the spreadsheet validation tool that ensures that data that is submitted conforms to the "ideal data template". We began to consider what data will be filtered from public view to protect anonymity of farms. As an example, the National Agricultural Statistics Services will not report data if fewer than 5 farms are represented in an area in the Quick Stats guide. We will continue to work on this in the next year. Ensuring database is FAIR Prior to this effort, it has been very difficult to obtain aggregate test results and statistics from manure sampling. Our database and interface has been designed from the outset to ensure this important data is Findable through our search capabilities, Accessible to all users, Interoperable with related data as it uses standard nomenclature and measurement units, and Reusable with richly annotated metadata and data provenance.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2023
Citation:
Bohl Bormann, N., Wilson, M., Cortus, E., Janni, K., Silverstein, K., & Gunderson, L. 2022. Recent Manure Test Data Demonstrates Need for Updated Manure Book Values [Abstract]. ASA, CSSA, SSSA International Annual Meeting, Baltimore, MD.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
Bohl Bormann, N., Wilson, M., Cortus, E., Janni, K., Silverstein, K., & Gunderson, L., 2023. ManureDB: Creating a Nationwide Manure Test Database. [Proceedings]. Western Nutrient Management Conference, Reno, NV. https://westernnutrientmanagement.org/Proceedings
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Progress 08/01/21 to 07/31/22
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for this project is the community that uses this manure data. This includes farmers developing manure management plans, engineers designing manure storages, state and federal regulators establishing best management practices for manure land application, laboratory managers assessing their performance in a region for manure analysis, or researchers modeling nutrient cycling and gas emissions. Changes/Problems:Stakeholder meetings were all virtual because of pandemic; the stakeholders feel a face-to-face meeting will be most useful when there is opportunity to test the working database. Work on the database itself has been slower than anticipated due to the pandemic and difficulty in meeting. Externally, it has been noted by our stakeholders that some agronomic labs have shut down due to the pandemic. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?PhD student professional development How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?As described above, our group has disseminated information at several conferences (the Agonomy, Crop Science, and Soil Science Societies Annual Meeting and the Waste-to-Worth Conference) as well as to topic-related interest groups like the Livestock and Poultry Environmental Learning Community. We have also continued to share information with our stakeholder group. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Continue to recruit four to six more labs to participate in data sharing. Collect data from participating labs and revise the spreadsheet validation tool if needed, or customize the tool for individual labs if necessary. Begin formal data analysis for spatial and temporal trends. Prepare first iteration of public-facing, database query tool for data evaluation. Meet with stakeholders to evaluate the tool for ease-of-use and effectiveness.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
With an increasing public concern about animal manure issues, better manure characteristics information is needed to better manage and utilize this resource while protecting our natural and public resources. Up-to-date and dynamic manure characteristics information will also enhance opportunities for technologies to extract energy and recycle the nutrients in the manure for crop production. Our aim is to design and implement a scalable and dynamic database and management system of manure analysis results from around the US. During this project period we continued to connect with stakeholders and other community members to continue developing manure data standards and collect initial manure nutrient analysis data. Developing data standards and evaluating historical data Our graduate student conducted some preliminary analyses with the historical data we have collected so far. She presented the results at the Waste-to-Worth Conference in Ohio and during a Livestock and Poultry Environmental Learning Community Webinar in 2022. Engaging Stakeholders The stakeholder advisory committee met virtually in March. The stakeholders had a chance to review the data use agreement, and were excited to see the brevity of the form! One stakeholder retired and his committee position was replaced with an animal scientist specialist. Another stakeholder took a new position, and his committee position was replaced with a representative of the biogas industry. Developed ideal data template with labs. Database development We have formalized a Data Use Agreement to share with laboratories for data transfer between them and the University of Minnesota. These Data Use Agreements have been shared with all participating labs thus far and revisions have been made as needed based on stakeholder input. At the time of this report, we had six labs with fully executed Data Use Agreements in place and two additional labs that were considering joining us. We received data from one lab from 2012-2020. We developed a spreadsheet validation tool that ensures that data that is submitted conforms to the "ideal data template". It validates that only certain values, or range of values, are used in each column. It prevents misspellings, ensures that numbers are used instead of text in certain columns (or vice versa), etc. Ensuring database is FAIR. Prior to this effort, it has been very difficult to obtain aggregate test results and statistics from manure sampling. Our database and interface has been designed from the outset to ensure this important data is Findable through our search capabilities, Accessible to all users, Interoperable with related data as it uses standard nomenclature and measurement units, and Reusable with richly annotated metadata and data provenance.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
Bohl Bormann, N., Wilson, M.L., Cortus, E., Janni, K., Gunderson, L., Prather, T., Silverstein, K. (2022). Trends in Manure Sample Data. In: Waste to Worth Conference. Oregon, OH. 19-22 April. https://lpelc.org/trends-in-manure-sample-data/
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
Wilson, M.L., Cortus, E., Bohl Bormann, N., Janni, K., Gunderson, L., Prather, T., Silverstein, K. (2022). Dynamic manure book values through the U.S. National Manure Database. In: Waste to Worth Conference. Oregon, OH. 19-22 April. https://lpelc.org/dynamic-manure-book-values-through-the-u-s-national-manure-database/
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
Bohl Bormann, N., Wilson, M.L., Cortus, E., Floren, J., Miller, R. O., Gunderson, L. (2021). Differences in Manure Total Nitrogen Results due to Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen and Nitrogen Combustion Methods. IN: Agronomy, Crop, and Soil Science Society Annual Meetings. Salt Lake City, UT. Nov. 7-10. https://scisoc.confex.com/scisoc/2021am/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/134506
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Progress 08/01/20 to 07/31/21
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for this project is the community that uses this manure data. This includes farmers developing manure management plans, engineers designing manure storages, state and federal regulators establishing best management practices for manure land application, laboratory managers assessing their performance in a region for manure analysis, or researchers modeling nutrient cycling and gas emissions. Changes/Problems:Stakeholder meetings were all held virtually because of COVID-19 pandemic. We also had planned on disseminating progress on the database at the Waste to Worth Conference in 2021, but the conference was cancelled and rescheduled for 2022. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?PhD student professional development How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?As mentioned, results have been primarily disseminated within the current working groups (project team and stakeholder groups). We also opened a discussion with the Livestock and Poultry Environmental Learning Community in order to gain information for the database but also to build awareness that this is being built. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We intend to develop our formal data user agreements between those sharing the data, those putting it into the database, and those using the data from the database. The initial database entry interface will be finalized. We also will recruit three to four more labs to participate in data sharing. For dissemination purposes, the database and preliminary data will be shared at the Waste to Worth Conference in April 2022 in Maumee, OH in a panel discussion.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
With an increasing public concern about animal manure issues, better manure characteristics information is needed to better manage and utilize this resource while protecting our natural and public resources. Up-to-date and dynamic manure characteristics information will also enhance opportunities for technologies to extract energy and recycle the nutrients in the manure for crop production. Our aim is to design and implement a scalable and dynamic database and management system of manure analysis results from around the US. During this project period we connected with stakeholders to begin developing manure data standards and collect initial manure nutrient analysis data. This helped us to develop our first database schema. We also learned what various manure-user groups will want in a public-facing interface so that the database can meet FAIR standards. Specific details are below. Developing data standards and evaluating historical data - Manure characteristic variability is tied to the myriad of climates, housing, storage and management practices across the various livestock and poultry types. In addition to stakeholders, the participants in a Livestock and Poultry Environmental Learning Community meeting built out an existing list of manure types and associated practices with terminology and practices from across the United States. Stakeholder meetings The stakeholder committee was formalized in the fall of 2020 with twelve active members (and two alternates). The stakeholders provide perspectives from commercial and university analytical labs, state and federal government organizations, policy development, private industry, and research programs. A kickoff meeting occurred in December of 2020 to introduce members, guiding principles for the database, guiding principles for stakeholder participation, and some introductory questions. Interactive virtual work sessions occurred in February of 2021. One working group focused on data sharing wants and needs, and laboratory costs and benefits to participation. There are differences between laboratories in existing practices to ask their clientele for consent to share data. Participants appeared confident with plans for anonymizing any private data associated with manure sample results. Short-term, there are anticipated labor and programming costs to set up export functions to share data with the database; long-term, aggregated data for lab benchmarking as a benefit will likely outweigh labor costs for participation, since functions will likely be established. A second working group focused on data standard needs. The working group raised the issue of identifying standard units for reporting, and when standardization should occur. The working group also identified the challenge that data input by lab customers is minimal, even with well-designed sample forms. Overall, these interactive sessions left the stakeholders with the following impressions and excitement points: the database is not just a fancy spreadsheet; geo locations of samples may have varying degrees of accuracy; there is opportunity to standardize some forms and processes between labs; manure is a hot-spot in environmental modelling and fills a void; and stakeholder participation is a great learning opportunity. A future focus for stakeholders and project team consideration is education and promotion efforts directed toward consultants and customers to enhance data entry on manure sample submission forms. Follow-up correspondence with stakeholders in the spring of 2021 dove deeper into data standard needs, and asked the question of who should perform data standardization (i.e. units): the lab supplying the analytical results or the database? Generally, stakeholders suggested the database curators take on this task as part of the data entry process for consistency. Database development Schema development. After initial discussion with manure testing domain experts in the group, we developed a preliminary database schema. Multiple rounds of community brainstorming sessions ensued that informed the ultimate content and desired functionality for the database. These directly resulted in refinements of the original draft schema. In addition to the schema, explicit use cases were documented to inform the development of the user interface. Database implementation. An initial relational database and user interface has been developed, and is nearly ready for internal user testing and refinement. Ensuring database is FAIR - Prior to this effort, it has been very difficult to obtain aggregate test results and statistics from manure sampling. Our database and interface has been designed from the outset to ensure this important data is Findable through our search capabilities, Accessible to all users, Interoperable with related data as it uses standard nomenclature and measurement units, and Reusable with richly annotated metadata and data provenance.
Publications
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