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A LYSIMETER STUDY TO INVESTIGATE THE EFFECT OF DAIRY EFFLUENT AND UREA ON CATTLE URIN N LOSSES, PLANT UPTAKE, AND SOIL RETENTION
Citation:
Silva, R. G., K. C. Cameron, H. J. Di, AND E E. Jorgensen*. A LYSIMETER STUDY TO INVESTIGATE THE EFFECT OF DAIRY EFFLUENT AND UREA ON CATTLE URIN N LOSSES, PLANT UPTAKE, AND SOIL RETENTION. 10.1007/s11270-005-2, J.T. Trevors (ed.), WATER, AIR, AND SOIL POLLUTION. Springer, New York, NY, 164(1-4):57-78, (2005).
Impact/Purpose:
to present information
Description:
Loss of nitrate (NO3-) from grazing land is a major cause for surface and ground water contamination. These losses can further increase when other N sources apply to grazing land. The objectives of this work were 1) to study the impact of either dairy effluent (DE) or urea on N losses and plant uptake when DE or urea was applied with and without cattle urine and; 2) organic C rich DE on the fate of urine N. Experiment was conducted using lysimeters that were extracted from Templeton sandy loam pasture soil. Application of DE resulted in significantly less (p < 0.05) NO3- leaching compared with urea only in the first year. Total annual N plant uptake was similar for DE and urea treatments. In the first year average NO3- concentrations were lower when DE was combined with urine than urine alone, but not in the second year. Urine plus urea resulted the greatest leaching losses in both years but its impact on herbage N was mixed. The total leaching loss from urine plus DE (90 kg N ha-1) was greater than urine alone (77 kg N ha-1) in the second year, but the annual percentage of 15N recovered in the leachate from the urine plus DE (9%) was similar to the urine alone (6%). However the 15N recoveries revealed that the contribution of urine N to NO3- leaching was greater when urine was combined with DE (98%) than urine alone (83%). The annual percentage of urine N uptake by the pasture from urine plus DE (29%) was significantly less than from urine alone (39%) (p < 0.01). The application of organic C rich DE had no significant effect on soil N retention or denitrification when applied with urine.
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A LYSIMETER STUDY TO INVESTIGATE THE EFFECT OF DAIRY EFFLUENT AND UREA ON CATTLE URIN N LOSSES, PLANT UPTAKE, AND SOIL RETENTION