New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Research abstracts

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Fate of nitrogen in pig effluent applied to a shallow stony
pasture soil

K. C. CAMERON¹
A. W. RATE²
P. L. CAREY¹
N. P. SMITH¹

1Department of Soil Science
Lincoln University
Canterbury, New Zealand
2Department of Plant and Soil
University of Western Australia
Perth, Western Australia

Abstract  A 2-year lysimeter experiment was conducted to determine the fate of nitrogen (N) in pig effluent applied to a shallow stony pasture soil. In the first year (1991), pig effluent was applied in a single application at three rates of total N (0, 200, and 600 kg N/ha) to 12 monolith lysimeters (500 mm diameter x 450 mm deep) during autumn (March). In the second year of the experiment, the 200 kg N/ha lysimeters received a repeat application using ¹⁵N-labelled effluent. Application at the 200 kg N/ha rate resulted in: 10% of the applied N being lost by ammonia volatilisation; 5% being leached (11 kg N/ha) in the first year and less than 2.5% of applied ¹⁵N being leached in the second year; 35% of the applied effluent ¹⁵N was recovered by the pasture; and 14% was recovered in the soil plus roots. Denitrification losses (estimated by difference) were high (39%) and were attributed to the soluble carbon content of the effluent, a supply of nitrate from nitrification of slurry N, and transient anaerobic conditions which probably occurred at the soil/gravel interface. Application at the 600 kg N/ha rate resulted in a large leaching loss (116 kg N/ha) and a high concentration of NO3-N in the drainage water. Application of effluent at either rate resulted in a considerable increase in pasture production, and this was attributed to improved plant nutrition.

Keywords  organic waste; slurry; soil; nitrate; environment; land application; nitrogen; pig effluent; leaching; volatilisation; lysimeter

New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Research, 1995, Vol. 38: 533-542

0028-8233/95/3804-0533 $2.50/0 (c) The Royal Society of New Zealand 1995

PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (802K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)

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