Sometimes, however, there are more nutrients in that litter than plants can use, and this may pose problems for water quality. They want to see whether the chicory can boost cattle and sheep production, as well as catch excess nutrients and improve marginal soil. Chicory has a big taproot, like a parsnip or carrot. Belesky found the chicory could keep soaking up nitrogen and respond to commercial nitrogen fertilizer application rates as high as 424 pounds an acre. Now he is testing composted turkey litter as fertilizer.
Farmers often stockpile the litter in the fall and apply it to their fields in spring.
Recommended rates are under 3 tons an acre. The only major problem with chicory grown in mixture with other pasture plants, Belesky says, is that lambs choose the other plants before eating chicory. Lab tests by ARS animal scientist Kenneth E. Turner led him to speculate that the high amounts of nitrogen mopped up by the plants might cause a buildup of compounds that temporarily retard digestive microbes in the lambs' rumens. This concept hasn't been tested on cattle yet. ARS chemist Joyce G. Foster is studying the chemical makeup of the chicory plants to see whether they hold something objectionable to the lambs.