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Nutrient Management

Manure Nitrogen Evaluation Routine (MANNER)

Organic manures are a valuable source of plant available nitrogen (N). A part of nutrient management planning is to account for this source of nutrients before calculating how much inorganic fertiliser should be applied to the crop. This helps ensure crop yields and quality will be optimised and pollution risks reduced.

MANNER is a piece of computer software which predicts the plant availability of manure nitrogen (N) following land application.

The MANNER software draws together the latest UK research information on factors affecting manure N availability to crops, and N losses via ammonia volatilisation and nitrate leaching.

MANNER can be used either:

  1. in advance of applying manure to check the likely effect of a spreading policy, or
  2. to assess the actual fertiliser N value of a spread manure using manure application details and weather data.
Further information

The MANNER software tool needs only a few inputs to run and is available free of charge and is from this website. (MANNER is provided and hosted for Defra under contract by ADAS)

Page last modified: 26 June 2006
Page published: 26 June 2006

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs