Potential Nitrogen Mineralization in Sandy Soils under Long-Term Poultry Litter Management

Abstract

Application of poultry litter to crops and pastures as an organic nutrient source is a common practice in U.S. agriculture. A laboratory incubation study for 60 days was laid out in a randomized block design. The treatments consisted of poultry litter applications corresponding to 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, in addition to control. Accumulation of mineralized nitrogen (N) was observed in all the treatments, with a typical small increase in inorganic N during the first 3 days followed by a big flush between 3 and 5 days. Mineralized N ranged from 69% to 39% of the total N applied in the greatest to lowest application treatments, respectively. The results suggested that recommendations should emphasize partitioning the total litter into smaller installments to coincide with crop growth period. Also, long-term application of poultry litter was found to increase soil pH.

Applied Manure and Nutrient Chemistry for Sustainable Agriculture and Environment

“…They measured the inorganic N content of the soil in the top 10 cm for up to 15 weeks and found that the inorganic N content of the soil that received commercial synthetic N had greater inorganic N early in the season than the soil that received litter. Typically, the mineralization of litter N shortly after application is high but stabilizes after the initial flush of inorganic N (Preusch et al 2002;Sanchez and Mylavarapu 2011). Schomberg et al (2011) reported that aboveground biomass of corn that was fertilized with litter was greater than that of corn fertilized with commercial inorganic N, suggesting that the gradual availability of inorganic N from litter may have benefited corn growth.…”