Sugarbeet Yield and Quality When Substituting Compost or Manure for Conventional Nitrogen Fertilizer

Abstract

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Winter and growing season nitrogen mineralization from fall-applied composted or stockpiled solid dairy manure

“…After being mechanically topped, the sugarbeet was harvested. Sugarbeet yield, quality, N uptake, and N use efficiency were reported earlier (Lehrsch et al 2015a, b).…”

“…1), a concern previously expressed for its deleterious effect on sugarbeet quality (Carter and Traveller 1981). This similar late-season mineralization explains, at least in part, why sugarbeet sucrose yield and quality did not decrease due to lateseason N uptake (Lehrsch et al 2015a, b), as is often suspected where an organic N source such as manure is applied before planting sugarbeet (Carter and Traveller 1981;Moore et al 2009). …”

“…Due to an apparent error in a commercial laboratory's preliminary analysis of our fall 2002 manure sample (discussed by Lehrsch et al 2015a), the estimated available N supplied by the 2003 manure treatments was about 31 % less than our two targeted rates, 202 and 403 kg N ha -1 (Table 3). In consequence, the two compost treatments in 2003 supplied on average about 1.55-fold more estimated available N than the two corresponding manure treatments (Table 3).…”

“…The experiment, described in detail by Lehrsch et al (2015a), was a randomized complete block with four replications and eight treatments. The current study reports data from the five treatments on which N mineralization was measured (Table 3): a control (that received no N fertilizer), two first-year rates of stockpiled solid manure (21.9 and 43.8 Mg ha -1 , dry wt.)…”

“…This concentration of milk production in the region thereby concentrates the manure from the dairy cattle. Some of this manure, with nearly all of its N in organic forms (Lehrsch and Kincaid 2007), ideally can be used by crop producers as a substitute for relatively expensive conventional inorganic N fertilizers (Lehrsch et al 2015a).…”