Comparison of Raw Dairy Manure Slurry and Anaerobically Digested Slurry as N Sources for Grass Forage Production

Abstract EN

We conducted a 3-year field study to determine how raw dairy slurry and anaerobically digested slurry (dairy slurry and food waste) applied via broadcast and subsurface deposition to reed canarygrass (Phalaris arundinacea) affected forage biomass, N uptake, apparent nitrogen recovery (ANR), and soil nitrate concentrations relative to urea.

Annual N applications ranged from 600 kg N ha−1 in 2009 to 300 kg N ha−1 in 2011.

Forage yield and N uptake were similar across slurry treatments.

Soil nitrate concentrations were greatest at the beginning of the fall leaching season, and did not differ among slurry treatments or application methods.

Urea-fertilized plots had the highest soil nitrate concentrations but did not consistently have greatest forage biomass.

ANR for the slurry treatments ranged from 35 to 70% when calculations were based on ammonium-N concentration, compared with 31 to 65% for urea.

Slurry ANR calculated on a total N basis was lower (15 to 40%) due to lower availability of the organic N in the slurries.

No consistent differences in soil microbial biomass or other biological indicators were observed.

Anaerobically digested slurry supported equal forage production and similar N use efficiency when compared to raw dairy slurry.