Effect of Soil pH and Application Rate of Dairy Cattle Manure on Yield and Recovery of Twelve Plant Nutrients by Corn1

Abstract

Addition of increasing amounts of manure (0 to 613 m tons/ha) to both unlimed (pH 4.5) and limed (pH 7.3) Ella loamy sand gave increasing total dry matter yields of corn (Zea mays L.) in all cases. The yields were significantly higher for the medium rates of application (68 and 204 m tons/ha) on the unlimed soil than on the limed soil. Concentrations of Ca, Mg, P, S, Fe, and Mo in the plant tissue were usually higher for the limed soil than the unlimed soil, but the reverse was true for Zn and Mn. The higher concentrations in the tissue on the limed soil were probably due in part to more favorable conditions for microbial activity and degradation of soil organic matter. Total recovery of the individual nutrients from the manure by the three corn crops generally decreased with increasing rate of application, probably due to declining increases in yield and nutrient uptake with successive increments of manure. The dairy cattle manure, a mixture of 69% feces and 31% urine, contained 11.1% dry matter, and on the dry basis, 5.05% N, 0.87% P, 2.04% K, 1.59% Ca, 0.68% Mg, 0.46% S, 21 ppm Cu, 106 ppm Mn, 135 ppm Zn, 354 ppm Fe, 73 ppm B, and 4 ppm Mo. The data suggest that for soils near the neutral point, the nutrients in manure, even at very high rates of application, can be utilized in crop production and soil improvement with relatively little danger of plant toxicity.