Impacts of organic soil amendments on forage grass production under different soil conditions

Tomas Persson,Arne Sæbø,Mats Höglind,Wieslaw Szulc,Beata Rutkowska,Hans Martin Hanslin

doi:10.23986/afsci.95778

Abstract

Organic amendments can improve grassland productivity. Timothy and tall fescue were sown on a sandy loam and a coarse sand at Særheim, Norway, in September 2016 and on a loamy sand at Skierniewice, Poland, in April 2017, and cut and fertilised according to normal practices for the two regions from 2017 to 2019. At both sites, 0.75 kg DM m-2 of either digested or undigested manure (the latter with or without 2.9 kg biochar m-2) were incorporated prior to sowing. On the coarse sand at Særheim, total seasonal tall fescue yield in 2018 was 46–60% higher in the organic amendment treatments, and total seasonal timothy yield in the digestate treatment was 97% higher, than in the control treatment for the same species with only mineral fertiliser. On the sandy loam at Særheim and the loamy sand at Skierniewice, none of the amendments resulted in significant yield increments. These results indicate a clear effect on soil type on grassland biomass response to organic amendments.

Highlights

Forage grasses, which are often the main feedstuff for ruminants (Fulkerson et al 2007, Thornton 2010), require an adequate nutrient supply, which in many cases is provided by a combination of animal manure and mineral fertiliser (Webb et al 2010, Gundersen and Heldal 2015)
For most cuts and for total seasonal yield in 2018 (Fig. 1), the yield difference between tall fescue, which produced the largest amount of biomass on both Særheim soils, and timothy was greater on the coarse sand soil than on the sandy loam
On the coarse sand at Særheim, total seasonal biomass yield of tall fescue in 2018 was significantly (p

Summary

Introduction

Forage grasses, which are often the main feedstuff for ruminants (Fulkerson et al 2007, Thornton 2010), require an adequate nutrient supply, which in many cases is provided by a combination of animal manure and mineral fertiliser (Webb et al 2010, Gundersen and Heldal 2015). Nutrients in manure and other organic materials are largely bound in organic compounds and need to be mineralised before they can be taken up by plants (Schröder 2005, Thomsen 2005, Sosulski et al 2013). Anaerobic digestion of manure and other organic materials to produce methane for electricity and heating (Nguyen and Hermansen 2015) affects the nutrient content and availability of these materials. The nutrient-rich residues after anaerobic digestion of organic materials of various origin to generate methane, differs from its undigested counterpart in having a markedly lower content of total organic carbon and volatile solids and a higher nitrogen content (N) as a result of the reduced carbon content (C) (Tambone et al 2010, Losak et al 2014). The C-rich porous biochar produced in these processes (Manyà 2012) can be incorporated into soils to improve their water and nutrient retention ability (Biederman and Harpole 2013) and to sequester C (Lehmann et al 2006)

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Conclusion