Applying manure to no-tilled fields can be a tough business, as it’s not always easy to do it without compacting or tearing up the ground. Rain patterns and new fertilizer application rules have also conspired to shorten the window of available days for manure to be applied.

But a family of no-tillers in southwestern Ohio has come up with a solution. David Alig and his brothers Greg and Rick, who no-till 1,800 acres of corn, soybeans, winter wheat and hay in Fort Recovery, Ohio, designed and built a machine that sidedresses liquid manure into standing corn and soybeans on 30-inch rows. 

The Continuous Manure Applicator (CMA) is a reel and injector with a patented swivel arm that pulls the 5½-inch hard hose away from the rig and incorporates the manure with an applicator up to 62½ feet wide. Pulled by a tractor, the CMA carries up to a half mile of hose, eliminating the damage and soil compaction that comes with driving over the same path repeatedly when filling and refilling heavy tankers. 

The Aligs built the machine and have the patents on it, and Courtland, Ontario-based Cadman Power Equipment makes and distributes the rigs through its dealer network.

Newfangled Technology

Alig says the CMA enables…