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Ten-Year-Old Field Study Yields Wealth of Information on Manure Management
Posted in: Pork Insight Articles, Production by student on July 25, 2018
Author: Christine Rawluk, National Centre for Livestock and Environment, University of Manitoba
Reference: Canadian Hog Journal Summer 2018
Summary: In 2007, the National Centre for Livestock and the Environment (NCLE) Long Term Field Laboratory was developed with the initial question: ” what happens to nitrogen availability and soil phosphorous levels over time when manure is applied either annually, at rates to meet crop N requirements, or intermittently, at rates to match crop P removal for several year?”
Since then, other questions have been asked such as:
- “What is the capacity of the soil to continue to provide nitrogen if manure applications stop?”
- “How does suspending manure application impact drawdown of soil test phosphorus levels?”
The field laboratory is composed of 96 plots that are under an annual cropping system or a perennial forage-based cropping system. The plots were treated with either an intermittent or annual application of liquid pig, solid pig and solid dairy manures as well as synthetic fertilizer. The control plots were treated with no fertilizer.
From this study the key findings regarding N have been:
- Crop growth is enhanced by the readily available nitrogen in liquid pig manure
- Annual manure addition over an eight year time frame created a soil reserve of N that can be utilized by future crops
- The residual soil nitrates in the fall increased periodically through the course of the study
From this study the key findings regarding P have been:
- Annual addition of P resulted in the rate of application being greater than the rate that P was removed, which increase the risk for runoff losses to surface water aiding in algae growth
- Once annual P addition was stopped the soil test P levels decreased faster om sites with a higher STP.
- Nitrogen fertilizer application did not accelerate the drawdown of STP
Ten-Year-Old Field Study Yields Wealth of Information on Manure Management