ABSTRACT:
Recent changes in the livestock industry of western Canada have included the increased establishment of intensive hog operations in semiarid regions where the availability of cultivated land for manure disposal is limited. Instead, permanent forage lands, including both tame pasture and native rangeland, are being considered for manure application. Given the inability of manure to be incorporated on these areas with cultivation, this study tested and successfully utilized static sorber traps as a relatively easy and inexpensive method to assess ammonia (NH3) losses on forage lands following different rates and methods of liquid hog manure application. Comparisons among treatments indicated ammonia loss increased with rate of manure application, with relatively greater losses on tame pasture than native rangeland. Coulter injection resulted in less ammonia loss compared to surface banding, with the greatest benefit on tame pastures, presumably due to the lack of surface litter and associated abundance of bare soil, factors that would increase ammonia volatilization. We conclude that the use of injection is beneficial in reducing ammonia loss on forage lands, particularly tame pastures at greater rates of manure application, but concede the economic benefits based on the amount of nitrogen conserved may be limited.
Footnotes
Brain D. Lambert is an environmental scientist with Solid Ground Environment, Inc. in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Edward W. Bork is an associate proffessor with the Agriculture/Foresty Cente at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
- Copyright 2003 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society
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