Nitrogen Fluxes Into, Out Of, and Within a Virginia Permaculture Livestock Farm

Abstract

Nitrogen (N) is necessary for food production, but when N in excess of crop-plant requirements enters the environment, it creates a number of detrimental impacts.Alternative agricultural practices, such as pasture-based livestock production, are often suggested as possible strategies for minimizing negative environmental impacts of modern agriculture. To evaluate the potential for these practices to decrease N losses to However, relative to other fluxes, the magnitude of the N sink represented by the pond is small (1 -3% of surplus N on the farm).Timbercreek Farm N use efficiencies are similar to conventional farm efficiencies, but, in contrast to conventional farms, spread surplus N over a larger area.ii On-site biogeochemical processes store and/or transform surplus N and prevent it from being exported in the streams. Relative to conventional agriculture, alternative livestock practices, such as those at Timbercreek Farm, have the potential to reduce negative environmental impacts on the farm scale, but are not likely to address the larger issue of inefficient resource use.