Soil aeration for dairy manure spreading on forage: Effects on ammonia volatilisation and yield

Abstract

Experiments were conducted to evaluate the effects of performing soil aeration either before or after spreading liquid manure in forage production systems. The experiments included eight trials performed in 1996 using a non-interfering diffusion method to determine ammonia (NH₃) flux emissions from both aerated and control plots. For all eight trials, the manure application rate was 75 355 L ha⁻¹. The average NH₃ loss for the aerated treatment was 67.3 kg ha⁻¹ while the loss for the control plots was 63.0 kg ha⁻¹. Although differences in the NH₃ loss between treatments were low, substantial variations were observed between individual trials depending on the prevailing meteorological conditions.To further evaluate the effects of soil aeration, 11 trials were carried out on Nova Scotia dairy farms in 1996 and 1997 to identify yield effects. Manure application rates ranged from 18 000 to 64 000 L ha⁻¹. The average forage yield on aerated treatments was 9.4% below control treatments (i.e., manure without aeration). Of the 11 trials, 9 resulted in significantly (P < 0.05) reduced yield with soil aeration. Key words: Liquid manure, ammonia volatilisation, soil aeration