The effect of increasing rates of nitrogen fertiliser and a nitrification inhibitor on nitrous oxide emissions from urine patches on sheep grazed hill country pasture
Coby J. Hoogendoorn A C , Cecile A. M. de Klein B , Alison J. Rutherford B , Selai Letica B and Brian P. Devantier AA AgResearch Grasslands, Private Bag 11008, Palmerston North, New Zealand.
B AgResearch Invermay, Private Bag 50034, Mosgiel, New Zealand.
C Corresponding author. Email: coby.hoogendoorn@agresearch.co.nz
Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture 48(2) 147-151 https://doi.org/10.1071/EA07238
Submitted: 6 August 2007 Accepted: 28 October 2007 Published: 2 January 2008
Abstract
Urine deposited by grazing animals represents the largest source of N2O emissions in New Zealand. Sheep-grazed hill pastures are an important component of New Zealand pastoral land, but information on N2O emissions from these areas is limited. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of increasing rates of fertiliser nitrogen and of a nitrification inhibitor on N2O emissions from urine patches. The study was carried out in grazed paddock-scale trials at the Ballantrae and Invermay Research Stations, New Zealand. The fertiliser N treatments were 0, 100, 300 and 750 (500 for Invermay) kg N/ha.year. Nitrous oxide measurements were conducted in the spring of 2005 and 2006, following applications of synthetic sheep urine with or without dicyandiamide (DCD) in these four N treatments. In both years and at both sites, N2O emissions increased with N fertiliser application rate in both urine and non-urine affected areas. The addition of DCD to the synthetic urine reduced N2O emissions from the urine affected areas during the measurement period by 60–80% at Ballantrae and by 40% at Invermay. The N2O emission factors for the artificial sheep urine (expressed as N2O-N lost as % of N applied) ranged from 0.01 to 1.06%, with the higher values generally found in the high N fertiliser treatments. The N2O emission factors were generally less than or similar to those from sheep urine applied to flat land pasture.
Acknowledgements
This work was funded by the Pastoral Greenhouse Gas Research Consortium and the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. We thank Barry Rolle, Phil Theobald and Bruce Matthews for assistance at Ballantrae, and Adrienne Smith (AgResearch Grasslands) for gas analysis.
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