Effects of meat bone meal as fertilizer on leaf nitrogen status in sugar beet and on soil nitrate concentrations

Jukka Kivelä

doi:10.15414/afz.2015.18.si.71-73

Abstract

Meat and bone meal (MBM) as a by-product from meat industry, is an important source for recycling of N and P. It contains about 8 % N, 5 % P, 1 % K and 10 % Ca. Field experiments were carried out for testing fertilization effect of MBM on yield and quality of sugar beet (2008-2009) and of carrot (2011-2012) in Finland and comparing with mineral fertilizer in conventional farming methods. In these experiments, MBM returned fair yields and generally better quality, in comparison to conventional mineral fertilization (Kivela et al., 2015). These experiments were also used for studying N availability as nitrate in soil in the carrot experiments, and using SPAD measurements as resulting N status of sugar beet leaves. The SPAD measurements indicated in first experiment year about same N availability of MBM nitrogen as mineral fertilizer with sugar beet. In the second year SPAD measurements indicated lower availability of MBM nitrogen, but difference in the yield amount was about same. In the first year of the carrot experiments nitrate amounts in soil were lower in the beginning of growing season, but at the season end it was corresponding with conventional fertilization. In the other experiment, in year 2011 MBM gave highest nitrate amounts in soil over whole growing season, while at the same time the carrots from the MBM treatments had lowest nitrate concentrations and best storage quality. I conclude that MBM fertilization, while giving comparable yields and improved quality, produces a differing pattern of nitrate availability in soil, and a differing pattern of nitrogen status in the plant, in comparison to conventional mineral fertilizers. Keywords: meat bone meal, organic fertlizer, nutrient content, recycling, sugar beet, carrot

Highlights

Meat and bone meal (MBM) is a by-product of the rendering industry.MBM contains about 8 % Nitrogen (N), 5 % Phosphorus (P), 1 % Potassium (K) and 10 % Calcium (Ca) (Ylivainio and Turtola, 2007), which makes it a valuable source of nutrients for plant production
Three inorganic fertilizers were used for comparisons: Pellon Hiven Y2TM 18-3-6 (HY2), Hiven Y1TM 23-3-6 (HY1) and Nurmen NK1TM 20-0-7 (NK1), all from Yara Ltd
Though in sugar beet root quality can be noticed that MBM gave the lowest amino N, free potassium and a quite low Na amount, which indicate a good quality

Summary

Introduction

Meat and bone meal (MBM) is a by-product of the rendering industry.MBM contains about 8 % Nitrogen (N), 5 % Phosphorus (P), 1 % Potassium (K) and 10 % Calcium (Ca) (Ylivainio and Turtola, 2007), which makes it a valuable source of nutrients for plant production. The use of MBM as fertilizer has been tested on many cereals and other field crops, like oats and ryegrass (Jeng et al 2004, 2006), barley and oats (Chen et al 2011) and maize (Nogalska et al 2012). In these studies MBM gave similar grain yields and grain protein content as those for corresponding cereals that had been treated by inorganic fertilizers. The relative N efficiency of total N in MBM compared to N from mineral fertilzers equalled about 80 % for oats and ryegrass (Jeng et al, 2004). SPAD was proved a good, indirect assessment of leaf chlorophyll concentration and crop N availability

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