Piggery pond sludge as a nitrogen source for crops 2. Assay of wet and stockpiled piggery pond sludge by successive cereal crops or direct measurement of soil available N
Y. Kliese A , W. M. Strong B , R. C. Dalal C D and N. W. Menzies AA School of Land and Food Sciences, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Qld 4072, Australia.
B Department of Plant Industries and Fisheries, Toowoomba, Qld 4350, Australia.
C Department of Natural Resources and Mines, 80 Meiers Road, Indooroopilly, Qld 4068, Australia.
D Corresponding author. Email: Ram.Dalal@nrm.qld.gov.au
Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 56(5) 517-526 https://doi.org/10.1071/AR04230
Submitted: 5 October 2004 Accepted: 25 February 2005 Published: 31 May 2005
Abstract
The appropriate use of wastes is a significant issue for the pig industry due to increasing pressure from regulatory authorities to protect the environment from pollution. Nitrogen contained in piggery pond sludge (PPS) is a potential source of supplementary nutrient for crop production. Nitrogen contribution following the application of PPS to soil was obtained from 2 field experiments on the Darling Downs in southern Queensland on contrasting soil types, a cracking clay (Vertosol) and a hardsetting sandy loam (Sodosol), and related to potentially mineralisable N from laboratory incubations conducted under controlled conditions and NO3– accumulation in the field. Piggery pond sludge was applied as-collected (wet PPS) and following stockpiling to dry (stockpiled PPS). Soil NO3– levels increased with increased application rates of wet and stockpiled PPS. Supplementary N supply from PPS estimated by fertiliser equivalence was generally unsatisfactory due to poor precision with this method, and also due to a high level of NO3– in the clay soil before the first assay crop. Also low recoveries of N by subsequent sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) and wheat (Triticum aestivum) assay crops at the 2 sites due to low in-crop rainfall in 1999 resulted in low apparent N availability. Over all, 29% (range 12–47%) of total N from the wet PPS and 19% (range 0–50%) from the stockpiled PPS were estimated to be plant-available N during the assay period. The high concentration of NO3- for the wet PPS application on sandy soil after the first assay crop (1998 barley, Hordeum vulgare) suggests that leaching of NO3– could be of concern when high rates of wet PPS are applied before infrequent periods of high precipitation, due primarily to the mineral N contained in wet PPS. Low yields, grain protein concentrations, and crop N uptake of the sorghum crop following the barley crop grown on the clay soil demonstrated a low residual value of N applied in PPS.
NO3– in the sandy soil before sowing accounted for 79% of the variation in plant N uptake and was a better index than anaerobically mineralisable N (19% of variation explained). In clay soil, better prediction of crop N uptake was obtained when both anaerobically mineralisable N (39% of variation explained) and soil profile NO3– were used in combination (R2 = 0.49).
Additional keywords: nitrate N, anaerobic incubation, N uptake, grain yield, wheat, barley, sorghum.
Acknowledgments
We thank the Pig Research and Development Corporation for financial support, J. Standley, K. Spann, and J. Hagedorn for technical support, J. Cooper and S. Rowlings for field assistance, and K. Bell for statistical advice, and two anonymous referees for numerous suggestions to improve the presentation of the paper.
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