Nitrogen dynamics following slurry injection in maize: crop development

Using pig slurry as starter fertilizer for maize ( Zea mays L.), injected below the row prior to planting is a reasonable way to omit application of additional mineral fertilizer in areas with intensive animal farming. However, delayed early growth and a lack of knowledge on nutrient availability li...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nutrient cycling in agroecosystems 2017, Vol.107 (1), p.19-31
Main Authors: Federolf, Carl-Philipp, Westerschulte, Matthias, Olfs, Hans-Werner, Broll, Gabriele, Trautz, Dieter
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agriculture
Animal wastes
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Cereal crops
Cold treatment
Corn
Crop development
Crop growth
Crops
Farmers
Fertilizers
Injection
Life Sciences
Liquid manure
Manures
Mineral fertilizers
Nitrification
Nitrogen
Nutrient availability
Original Article
Phosphorus
Pig manure
Planting
Slurries
Starter fertilizers
Zea mays
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Using pig slurry as starter fertilizer for maize ( Zea mays L.), injected below the row prior to planting is a reasonable way to omit application of additional mineral fertilizer in areas with intensive animal farming. However, delayed early growth and a lack of knowledge on nutrient availability limit the interest of farmers. To extenuate farmers concerns a field trial was conducted in 2014 and 2015 to get detailed information on nitrogen (N) uptake, the subsequent influences on crop growth at different vegetative growth stages and final yield of silage maize. Besides an unfertilized control, two liquid manure injection treatments (without and with nitrification inhibitor [NI]) were compared to slurry broadcast application + mineral N and phosphorus (P) starter fertilizer at planting (MSF). In 2014, NI treatment yields increased (+16.5%) and N uptake increased (+9.6%) compared to broadcast treatment. In 2015, cold and dry conditions during early growth limited P plant availability and reduced crop growth in treatments without MSF. However, when a NI was added to the slurry prior to application, plants showed less P deficiency symptoms and better growth. At harvest no differences between the fertilized treatments were observed. In both years apparent N recovery was increased when manure was injected (48% without, and 56% with NI, respectively) compared to broadcast application of manure (43%) indicating that N losses were lower. However, further knowledge on soil N transformation and N loss pathways in systems with slurry injection is needed.
ISSN:1385-1314
1573-0867
DOI:10.1007/s10705-016-9813-y