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Efficacy of different temperate pasture species to reduce nitrogen leaching from cattle urine applied in different seasons: A soil lysimeter study
Author(s) -
Welten Brendon G.,
Ledgard Stewart F.,
Judge Amanda A.,
Sprosen Mike S.,
McGowan Alec W.,
Dexter Moira M.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
soil use and management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.709
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1475-2743
pISSN - 0266-0032
DOI - 10.1111/sum.12512
Subject(s) - lysimeter , pasture , leaching (pedology) , grazing , agronomy , urine , perennial plant , temperate climate , zoology , nitrogen , environmental science , soil water , chemistry , biology , botany , soil science , biochemistry , organic chemistry
A soil lysimeter field study assessed the efficacy of different pasture species to reduce nitrogen (N) leaching loss from cow urine deposited in different seasons. A single application of cow urine ( 15 N‐labelled; equivalent to 622 kg N ha −1 ) was applied in three different seasons (summer, autumn or winter) to three pasture species monocultures (perennial ryegrass, plantain or lucerne) on a free‐draining volcanic soil and monitored over 362 days. Leachate analyses revealed consistently large leaching losses of inorganic‐N from lucerne (>200 kg N ha −1 ) across different urine application times due to the relatively low plant growth rates during winter (<15 kg DM ha −1 day −1 ) that led to low total recovery of urine‐N by lucerne plants (<20% of the applied urine‐ 15 N). Conversely, plant uptake of the urine‐N was higher by plantain (ranging from 30% to 45% of that applied) driven by moderately higher winter plant growth rates (30 to 60 kg DM ha −1 day −1 ). Plantain exhibited large seasonal variation in its efficacy to reduce urine‐N leaching relative to ryegrass (ranging from 15% to 50% reduction for summer or winter urine applications, respectively) with an overall reduction of 39% in the total amount of inorganic‐N leached across the three seasons (53 vs. 87 kg N ha −1 leached relative to ryegrass). This study has demonstrated the potential benefit of using plantain to reduce N leaching losses from urine deposited in the summer to winter grazing period. However, further research is required to quantify the effects of plantain on annual N leaching losses from grazed pastoral systems.