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Environmental Impacts of Different Turkey Litter Application Methods

Published by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, St. Joseph, Michigan www.asabe.org

Citation:  Paper number  032153,  2003 ASAE Annual Meeting . (doi: 10.13031/2013.13786) @2003
Authors:   Sanjay B. Shah, Michael D. Shamblin, Harry N. Boone, Stacy A. Gartin, Devinder K. Bhumbla
Keywords:   Water quality, Ammonia volatilization, Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Incorporated band, Broadcast, Surface band, Ammonia sampler

The traditional practice of broadcasting poultry litter on the soil surface could result in environmental degradation due to nutrient loss in runoff or through ammonia volatilization. Also, excessive nutrient loss could decrease crop yield. In this study, the runoff and ammonia volatilization impacts of three turkey litter application (4.5 Mg/ha) methods, broadcast, surface band, and incorporated band were investigated. In the 8-d runoff study, treatments were applied to hydrologically-isolated plots and runoff volumes were collected and sampled for pollutant concentrations over three runoff events (one natural, two simulated). In the natural runoff event, incorporated banding resulted in significantly lower total suspended solids (TSS) loadings than the other treatments. The incorporated band vs. broadcast treatments were not significantly different in nutrient concentrations or loadings in runoff. However, when pollutant loadings were totaled for the three runoff events, compared with broadcasting, incorporated banding reduced ammoniacalnitrogen, dissolved reactive phosphorus, and TSS loadings by 71, 76, and 54%, respectively. Compared with broadcasting, surface banding did not give any water quality benefits. Over 11d, incorporated banding significantly reduced ammonia volatilization compared with the other treatments. Ammonia volatilization losses from the broadcast, incorporated band, and surface band treatments were 398, 84, and 475 g/ha, respectively.

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