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ARS Home » Northeast Area » University Park, Pennsylvania » Pasture Systems & Watershed Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #192577
Title: WATER EXTRACTABLE PHOSPHORUS: SOURCES AND AMOUNTS

Author
item Kleinman, Peter
item WOLF, A - PENN STATE UNIVERSITY
item Sharpley, Andrew
item BEEGLE, D - PENN STATE UNIVERSITY
item Saporito, Louis - Lou

Submitted to: Popular Publication
Publication Type: Popular Publication
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/15/2006
Publication Date: 2/20/2006
Citation: Kleinman, P.J.A., Wolf, A.M., Sharpley, A.N., Beegle, D.B., Saporito, L.S. 2006. Water extractable phosphorus: sources and amounts. CSA News. 2:43-46

Interpretive Summary: An interpretive summary is not required.

Technical Abstract: Water extractable P (WEP) in manure is increasingly used as an environmental indicator as it is correlated with P in runoff from soils recently amended with manure. Little information exists on WEP variability across livestock manures. A survey of 140 livestock manures was conducted to assess trends in WEP (dry weight equivalent) related to livestock types and manure storage. Manure WEP ranged widely (0.2 to 16.8 g per kg), with swine having the highest average concentrations (9.2 g per kg), followed by turkey (6.3 g per kg), layer chickens (4.9 g per kg), dairy cattle (4.0 g per kg), broiler chickens (3.2 g per kg-1) and beef cattle (2.3 g per kg). Varying positive correlations were observed between WEP in manure and water extractable Ca, Mg and Fe, or total P, depending upon livestock category. Results of this study show that livestock manure can be categorized by WEP, a key step toward differential weighting of agricultural P sources in P site assessment indices.