Smooth bromegrass pasture beef growing systems: Fertilization strategies and economic analysis

Watson, Andrea K; Klopfenstein, Terry J.; Schacht, Walter H.; Erickson, Galen E.; Mark, Darrell R.; Luebbe, Matt K.; Brink, K. R.; Greenquist, Matthew A.

doi:10.15232/s1080-7446(15)30384-3

Cited by 15 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Watson et al (2012) found that cattle grazing unfertilized smooth bromegrass pastures had 25% less dietary CP (133 g CP kg −1 ) than cattle grazing N-fertilized smooth bromegrass pastures (179 g kg −1 ) at ENREC. Watson et al (2012) found that cattle grazing unfertilized smooth bromegrass pastures had 25% less dietary CP (133 g CP kg −1 ) than cattle grazing N-fertilized smooth bromegrass pastures (179 g kg −1 ) at ENREC.…”

Section: Dietary Nutritive Value and Dung Qualitymentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Cattle exhibit a partial preference for legumes relative to grasses (Boland et al, 2011;Villalba et al, 2015), and in mixed grass-legume swards, they select legumes at greater proportions than offered (Wen et al, 2004). These differences were expected to increase from June to August as dietary nutritive value (Watson et al, 2012) and dung quality (Lysyk et al, 1985) decrease in smooth bromegrass pastures and legume proportions increase. We hypothesized that cattle grazing legume-interseeded smooth bromegrass pastures would select diets with greater CP and in turn produce dung that has greater quality, decomposes faster, and increases nutrient movement into soil relative to diets and dung from N-fertilized and unfertilized smooth bromegrass monocultures.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Dietary Nutritive Value, Dung Quality, Decomposition, and Nutrient Movement into Soil in Smooth Bromegrass Pastures

et al. 2019

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Legumes increase forage nutritive value in pastures; however, literature addressing the impacts on dietary nutritive value, dung quality, decomposition, and nutrient movement into soil remains scarce. Cattle grazing legume‐interseeded smooth bromegrass (Bromus inermis Leyss.) pastures may select diets with greater nutritive value and consequently produce dung that decomposes faster and increases nutrient movement into soil relative to cattle grazing N‐fertilized and unfertilized smooth bromegrass pastures. In 2014 and 2015, we collected rumen and dung samples from replicated experiments to evaluate effects of season (June and August), pasture type (legume‐interseeded, N‐fertilized, and unfertilized pastures), and harvest time (3, 7, and 30 d after deposition) on dietary nutritive value, dung quality, dung decomposition, and nutrient movement into soil. Cattle grazing legume‐interseeded pastures had similar dietary crude protein concentrations but 11% less dietary neutral detergent fiber concentrations than cattle grazing N‐fertilized pastures. Dung from cattle grazing legume‐interseeded pastures, meanwhile, had 5 to 12% greater N concentrations than dung from cattle grazing N‐fertilized and unfertilized pastures. From 3 to 30 d after deposition, dung C/N ratio decreased from 20.0 to 16.5; whereas, dry matter remaining diminished to 77.5%. Dung C/N ratio and dry matter remaining did not vary with season or pasture type. At Day 7, soil below dung from cattle grazing legume‐interseeded pastures had 20 and 42% greater inorganic N than soil below dung from N‐fertilized and unfertilized pastures. This research showed that pastures with legumes increases dietary nutritive value, resulting in greater dung quality and increased N movement into soil.

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Section: Dietary Nutritive Value and Dung Qualitymentioning

confidence: 96%

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confidence: 99%

Dietary Nutritive Value, Dung Quality, Decomposition, and Nutrient Movement into Soil in Smooth Bromegrass Pastures

et al. 2019

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“…Research with smooth bromegrass has evaluated effects of fertilizer N inputs and application strategies on ANR and NUE, defined as forage DM production per unit of N fertilizer applied (Colville et al, 1963; George et al, 1973; Zemenchik and Albrecht, 2002). Recent research efforts have focused on increasing animal NUE through dietary supplementation strategies that increase body mass (protein) gains while reducing N fertilizer inputs to pastures (Greenquist et al, 2011; Watson et al, 2012). For pasture‐based systems, however, there is a knowledge gap on forage N responses to ruminant urine input and whether responses depend on N fertilizer rate.…”

Section: Useful Conversionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ruminant Urine Increases Uptake but Decreases Relative Recovery of Nitrogen by Smooth Bromegrass

Snell¹,

Guretzky

Jin

et al. 2017

Crop Forage & Turfgrass Mgmt

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Core Ideas Forage mass and crude protein increase with N fertilizer rates up to 160 lb/acre in smooth bromegrass pastures. Smooth bromegrass responds even more so to urine from livestock grazing. Managers should encourage even grazing distribution across time to minimize nutrient losses from pastures. Understanding pasture responses to urine deposition remains limited. From 2011 to 2012, we investigated the effects of urine collected from ruminants and applied to N‐fertilized (0, 40, 80, 120, and 160 lb N/acre) plots (25 sq ft) of smooth bromegrass (Bromus inermis Leyss.) in eastern Nebraska. Urine was spread evenly across plots at both a volume (0.6 qt/sq ft) and N content (0.26 and 0.24 oz/qt) that simulated ruminant urine deposition in spring and resulted in an additional supply of 425 and 392 lb N/acre in 2011 and 2012, respectively. Control plots received the same volume of distilled water but no additional N. Response variables included forage mass, crude protein (CP) concentration, N uptake, apparent N recovery (ANR), and N use efficiency (NUE). In 2011, forage mass, CP, and N uptake increased linearly with N fertilizer rate and were 80, 30, and 135%, respectively, greater in urine‐treated than in distilled water–treated plots. In 2012, drought limited forage mass, and only urine impacted N responses. Apparent N recovery averaged 42% in urine‐treated and 63% in distilled water–treated plots in 2011 but did not differ between treatments in 2012, averaging 24%. Values for NUE did not differ among treatments and averaged 13.0 lb dry matter (DM)/lb N fertilizer applied in 2011 and 6.5 lb DM/lb N fertilizer applied in 2012. In years with favorable precipitation, producers can expect forage mass and CP to increase with fertilizer applications up to 160 lb N/acre. Optimum rates, though, would depend on production goals, nutritional needs of livestock, and fertilizer, land, and cattle prices.

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“…Stocking rates in animal unit days (AUD) ha -1 were adjusted for herbage productivity and supplementation. Stocking rates after adjustments for put-and-take cattle averaged 256, 399, and 387 AUD ha -1 in CONT, SUPP, and FERT, respectively, during the first 5 yr of the experiment (Watson et al, 2012) and 222, 345, and 345 AUD ha -1 in CONT, SUPP, and FERT, respectively, in 2010 and 2011 . The initial stocking rate in SUPP was the same as in FERT because feeding DDGS reduced herbage dry matter (DM) intake in SUPP relative to FERT (i.e., 7.4 kg AUD -1 vs. 10.2 kg AUD -1 ) and compensated for the estimated 30% reduction in herbage productivity due to no fertilization.…”

Section: Litter Decomposition and Nutrient Disappearancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…With increasing costs of N fertilizer application and risks of N losses to the environment, however, efforts have been underway to increase N use efficiency in forage-based livestock production (Greenquist et al, 2011). Early research showed steers in SUPP had better body weight gains and used N more efficiently than steers in CONT and FERT (Greenquist et al, 2009;, and the SUPP management strategy produced greater economic returns because of reduced N fertilizer costs and improved animal performance (Watson et al, 2012). Early research showed steers in SUPP had better body weight gains and used N more efficiently than steers in CONT and FERT (Greenquist et al, 2009;, and the SUPP management strategy produced greater economic returns because of reduced N fertilizer costs and improved animal performance (Watson et al, 2012).…”

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confidence: 99%

Reduced Nitrogen Mineralization and Litter Decomposition in Unfertilized Smooth Bromegrass Pastures

et al. 2015

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Nitrogen fertilization has been shown to affect herbage accumulation, litter deposition, litter N return, and presence of weeds in smooth bromegrass (Bromus inermis Leyss.) pastures. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of pasture management strategies that varied amount and form of N input on soil N mineralization, litter decomposition, and litter N release in smooth bromegrass pasture. Management strategies included: (i) nitrogen‐fertilized pasture grazed with unsupplemented beef cattle (FERT); (ii) unfertilized pasture grazed with unsupplemented beef cattle (CONT); and (iii) unfertilized pasture grazed with dried distillers grains plus solubles (DDGS)‐supplemented beef cattle (SUPP). After 210 d of aerobic soil incubation, cumulative soil N mineralization was 155.1 ± 9.8, 170.5 ± 15.6, and 180.2 ± 13.8 mg N kg–1 soil for CONT, SUPP, and FERT pastures, respectively, which represented a supply of 254, 279, and 294 kg N ha–1 for the 0‐ to 15‐cm soil depth, respectively. Decomposition day models incorporating precipitation and temperature generally were the best predictors of litter decomposition. Regardless of the model used, there was no difference in litter decomposition among management strategies in 2010, while in 2011, both leaf and stem litter decomposed faster in FERT than CONT and SUPP pastures. After 8 yr of management, cessation of N fertilization in CONT and SUPP resulted in a soil environment that supported less litter decomposition than FERT.

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Smooth bromegrass pasture beef growing systems: Fertilization strategies and economic analysis

Abstract: ABSTRACT

Cited by 15 publications

References 7 publications

Dietary Nutritive Value, Dung Quality, Decomposition, and Nutrient Movement into Soil in Smooth Bromegrass Pastures

Dietary Nutritive Value, Dung Quality, Decomposition, and Nutrient Movement into Soil in Smooth Bromegrass Pastures

Ruminant Urine Increases Uptake but Decreases Relative Recovery of Nitrogen by Smooth Bromegrass

Reduced Nitrogen Mineralization and Litter Decomposition in Unfertilized Smooth Bromegrass Pastures

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