How Far Can Poultry Litter Go? A New Technology for Litter Transport

Exporting northwest Arkansas excess turkey and broiler litter to partially fertilize nutrient-deficient cropland in eastern Arkansas can be more cost effective than to supply all crop nutrients with chemical fertilizer only, given current high fertilizer prices. Cost savings are greater if litter is baled in ultraviolet resistant plastic and transported via truck, since backhaul opportunities reduce truck rates, or alternatively, if raw litter is shipped via a truck-barge combination. Rice is the crop that allows for greater savings according to a mathematical programming model implemented in General Algebraic Modeling System (GAMS).