Nitrate in soil water at different depths during the growing season on permanent pasture (Comparison of mineral fertilizer and liquid manure)

Abstract

In a pasture experiment for fattening cattle, which had been running several years, suction cups were installed on the 19th of April 1985 at different depths in the treatments receiving either mineral fertilizer or liquid manure. Nitrate nitrogen (NO ^-₃ -N) was measured during the vegetation period every 14 days in 8 samples per treatment. On average, the N content in soil water increased with increasing depth from 50 to 200 cm. At 50 cm: in 65% of the cases N values varied between 4 and 11 mg N 1^-1 for both treatments. At 100 cm: higher N values viz. 15 to 52 mg N 1^-1 resulted from the mineral fertilizer treatment in 81% and from the liquid manure treatment in 25% of the cases. At 200cm: lower nitrate contents (17 to 39 mg N 1^-1) were obtained from the addition of liquid manure than from the mineral fertilizer treatment (46 to 88 mg 1^-1).