Skip to main content
ARS Home » Southeast Area » Florence, South Carolina » Coastal Plain Soil, Water and Plant Conservation Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #380739
Research Project: Managing Water Availability and Quality for Sustainable Agricultural Production and Conservation of Natural Resources in Humid Regions

Location: Coastal Plain Soil, Water and Plant Conservation Research

Title: Phosphorus runoff from sandy soils under conservation tillage with surface broadcasted recovered phosphates

Author
item Sohoulande, Clement
item Szogi, Ariel
item Stone, Kenneth - Ken
item Sigua, Gilbert
item Martin, Jerry
item Shumaker, Paul
item BAUER, PHILIP - Retired ARS Employee

Submitted to: American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/25/2021
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Potential new sources of recycled phosphorus (P) that can be used as fertilizer are the recovered P from livestock wastewater through chemical precipitation and the P in ash from combusting animal manures. Both recovered materials are rich in P but have low solubility in water. Most of the research on P losses from conservation tillage was done with commercial fertilizers that have a high-water soluble P content but little information exists on the use of recycled sources with low-water soluble P. The objective of this study was to investigate the potential P runoff from conservation tillage fertilized with two non-conventional P sources, turkey litter ash and recovered swine manure phosphates, in comparison with commercial triple superphosphate fertilizer. Artificial rains corresponding to the annual 30-minute rainfall in the study site (Florence, South Carolina) were applied to plots treated with the three P fertilizer sources and one control (no P application). The runoff was monitored and water samples taken at different times. Laboratory analyses were conducted to quantify the soluble P in the run-off water from the plots. The results showed that the soluble P collected in the run-off from plots from treated with turkey litter ashes and the recovered swine manure P represented respectively 9.4% and 6.7% of the P collected in the run-off from the plots treated with the high-water soluble triple superphosphate. These results suggest that the use of the turkey litter ashes or recovered P manures as crop P fertilizer through a surface broadcast application could minimize losses of P in the surface run-off from conservation tillage plots. Additional results will be presented on the hydrological aspects of the broadcast application of the turkey litter ashes and recovered swine manure P as fertilizers.