Broiler Litter Type and Placement Effects on Corn Growth, Nitrogen Utilization, and Residual Soil Nitrate-Nitrogen in a No-Till Field

Published in Agron. J. 104:43–48 (2012) Posted online 10 Nov 2011 doi:10.2134/agronj2011.0093 Copyright © 2012 by the American Society of Agronomy, 5585 Guilford Road, Madison, WI 53711. All rights reserved. No part of this periodical may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. P litter is generated in large quantities in the southeastern United States and has long been recognized as a desirable organic fertilizer since it improves soil fertility by adding essential plant nutrients and organic matter and improves water and nutrient retention (Vest et al., 1994; Moore et al., 1995). Recently, as agricultural input costs for row crops have reduced growers’ profi ts, interest in using poultry litter as an important alternative source of nutrients for crop production has increased. No-till crop production has become the most common form of conservation tillage for corn and its acreage has increased in the United States, with about 408,000 hectares of no-till corn in the southeastern United States in 2004 (CTIC, 2007). Adoption of no-till system and use of poultry litter as alternatives to conventional tillage and inorganic fertilizers may help corn producers to economically boost corn grain yield. However, manure application to no-till, may reduce its eff ectiveness as a nutrient source because of potential N loss via runoff (Westerman et al., 1983; Edwards and Daniel, 1993; Shreve et al., 1995) and ammonia volatilization (Nathan and Malzer, 1994). Volatilization loss of NH3 from surface-applied broiler litter has been reported to exceed 24% with the greatest loss occurring in the fi rst week of application (Sharpe et al., 2004). Th e lack of litter incorporation in no-till cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) fi eld leads to a reduction of lint yield by 8% compared to litter incorporation practices (Tewolde et al., 2008). Application of poultry litter under no-till soil management concentrates P at the soil surface that can later dissolve in runoff water (Kleinman and Sharpley, 2003). Th us, the surface broadcast of poultry litter greatly increases nutrient losses from fi elds receiving poultry litter (Pote et al., 2003; Zhao et al., 2001) and appears to be an ineffi cient way of delivering manure nutrients. Use of alternative management practices to eliminate or minimize litter exposure to the air, rain, and runoff should be agronomically and environmentally benefi cial. Several researchers have reported benefi cial eff ects of subsurface banding of broiler litter for crop production, but these studies were mainly focused on perennial forages (Pote et al., 2003, 2009; Sistani et al., 2009, Warren et al., 2008; Watts et al., 2011). For example, subsurface banding of broiler litter into perennial grassland substantially reduce total P and NO3–N concentrations in runoff compared to the traditional surface-broadcast practice (Sistani et al., 2009). Subsurface banding of poultry litter reduced concentrations of inorganic N by 91%, total N by 90%, dissolved reactive P by 86%, and total P by 86% in runoff water compared with surface broadcasted of poultry litter (Watts et al., 2011). Likewise, in a humid climatic condition, placing poultry litter into 8-cmdeep soil-aeration cuts in perennial grasslands reduced nutrient concentrations in runoff by 74 to 90% compared with surface broadcasted poultry litter (Pote et al. (2003) and 2009). Th e eff ect of subsurface banding of broiler litter has also been evaluated for cotton under conventional tillage system. In a conventional tillage system with cotton, preor postplanting of broiler ABSTRACT