Abstract
The use of digestates or cattle slurries as fertilisers could contribute to the recycling of nutrients and organic matter, thus meeting the goals of the circular economy in agriculture. This work aims at evaluating the fertilising properties of a solid digestate (DG) in comparison with undigested cattle slurry (CS) and mineral fertilisation (MF). The experiment was performed in pots with ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam.) grown in an acidic soil during a 163 days crop cycle. The results showed that throughout the crop cycle neither DG nor CS increased soil organic matter. DG significantly increased (P < 0.001) the sum of the soil exchangeable bases and soil P availability compared with CS or MF. Also, DG significantly increased (P < 0.05) the apparent P recovery of ryegrass (43%) compared with MF (27%). In the first cut, the ryegrass yield was higher in DG and CS than in MF, decreasing in the second and third cuts as a consequence of a decrease in N availability. Nevertheless, the fertilisation with DG or CS could replace the half amount of mineral N fertilisation, without a significant decrease in the ryegrass forage production. In addition, DG enables greater efficiency in the use of P than CS or MF.
Highlights
Livestock effluents, manures and slurries, are commonly used as fertilisers in agriculture as soil improvers or providing nutrients for crop growth
The digestate had a low amount of dry matter (290 g·kg−1) which had almost 56% of organic matter
A large proportion of the DM of our digestate is organic its value is lower than that reported for Tambone et al [7] which ranged between 67% - 74% for digestates obtained from livestock slurries
Summary
Manures and slurries, are commonly used as fertilisers in agriculture as soil improvers or providing nutrients for crop growth. These effluents could be used as feedstock for anaerobic digestion (AD) to obtain bio-. Turning livestock effluents and other organic wastes into a renewable energy resource such as the production of biogas or biomethane offers an opportunity to 1) continuously use and reuse organic waste, 2) produce digestate with fertilising properties and 3) decrease greenhouse gas emissions. In the years it is expected an increase in digestate production and the need of deeper knowledge about its good agricultural management practices
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