Skip to main content
ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #203378

Title: Cover Crop Effects on the Fate of Swine Manure-N Applied to Soil

Author
item Kaspar, Thomas
item Parkin, Timothy
item Singer, Jeremy

Submitted to: ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/16/2006
Publication Date: 11/16/2006
Citation: Kaspar, T.C., Parkin, T.B., Singer, J.W. 2006. Cover Crop Effects on the Fate of Swine Manure-N Applied to Soil [CD-ROM]. In: ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting Abstracts. Nov. 12-16, 2006, Indianapolis, IN.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Cereal grain cover crops increase surface cover, anchor corn and soybean residues, increase infiltration, reduce both rill and interrill erosion, scavenge excess nutrients from the soil, and are easily obtained and inexpensive compared to other cover crop options. The use of cereal grain cover crops in fields where manure application occurs should increase nitrogen (N) recovery and cycling for use in subsequent crops. The objectives of this study were to determine if a rye cover crop increases N retention after soil application of swine lagoon slurry. Experiments were conducted in a controlled environment chamber using plastic buckets as the experimental units. Three manure-N loading rates (no manure, low, high) were applied to soils with and without a rye cover crop. A partial N balance was determined from measurements of nitrate (NO3) leaching, nitrous oxide (N2O) and ammonia (NH3) emissions, cover crop N uptake, and NO3 + ammonium (NH4) remaining in the soil. Cumulative nitrate load in the drainage water was less than 0.31 g m-2 NO3-N for rye treatments regardless of the manure rate, however in the fallow treatments, at the high manure rate NO3 leaching losses were 6.28 and 3.77 g m-2 NO3-N, for experiments 1 and 2, respectively. Rye N uptake ranged from 2.95 g N m-2 to 10.7 g N m-2, and was related to manure rate. Rye had lower cumulative N2O emission than the no rye treatment for the high manure treatment. Ammonia emissions were low for all treatments during both experiments, which was probably related to the rapid manure incorporation after application. Rye can increase N retention, reduce cumulative N2O emissions, and reduce cumulative N load in drainage water when manure is applied to soils. Nitrogen balance calculations in the cover crop treatments accounted for less than the equivalent of 50% of the added manure N. We speculate that the living rye plants may have increased immobilization of N in the organic N pools.