NACAA

MANURE TOP-DRESS NITROGEN WHEAT PLOTS

Abstract:

Livestock manure was applied as spring top-dress fertilizer to provide the spring nitrogen source for eight winter wheat plots in Ohio. These replicated plots were conducted over three years in Putnam and Hancock Counties in Northwest Ohio. Each of these plots had a two to four treatments and each treatment was replicated four times at each location. Liquid swine manure was applied on seven of the eight plots and compared to urea (46-0-0) fertilizer. Liquid dairy manure was top-dressed on the remaining plot. Manure was applied using a standard 3,000 gallon manure tanker on all wheat plots in early April after the wheat had broken dormancy and field conditions were deemed suitable. Urea was applied using a fertilizer buggy. Manure was applied at rates to approximate the nitrogen amount in the urea treatments. Typically this was 80 to 105 pounds of nitrogen per acre which required 3,000 to 5,000 gallons of liquid manure per acre depending on the nutrient content of the manure. In some plots, manure treatments were both incorporated and surface applied. Wheat yields ranged from 52 bu/A to 128 bu/A on the wide range of soil types. There was no statistical yield difference between using livestock manure or purchased urea fertilizer as the top-dress nitrogen source in seven of the eight plots. The potential to use liquid manure as a top-dress nitrogen source for growing wheat opens a new window of opportunity to apply manure to farming fields and also more effectively utilize the nutrients in manure.