Wheat yield increased
Frank Larney, a soil conservationist with Agriculture Canada in Lethbridge, has shown that manure applied to severely eroded soil increased wheat yield by up to 24 bushels per acre.
Larney, working at one irrigated and three dryland sites in Alberta, applied 30 tonnes per acre of feedlot manure to areas that had been artificially-eroded by grading off the top five, 10, 15, or 20 centimetres of soil. Ungraded soil was left as a control treatment. On average, the wheat yields increased by eight bushels per acre on the ungraded soil, and by 11, 18.75, 21 and 24 bushels per acre respectively on the graded soils.
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Manure improves crop yield whether the soil is eroded or not, and increases yields more on fields that have been eroded.
Larney found manure increases the aggregate stability of the surface soil, which makes the soil better able to withstand wind and water erosion. Manure also speeds the infiltration of water into the soil, increases the amount of water held by the soil, and decreases the loss of soil moisture due to evaporation. Larney says these effects are largely due to increased soil porosity and reduced runoff. Earthworm populations and microbial populations are generally higher with manure applications as well.
“Although commercial fertilizers supply nutrients, manure has biological and physical properties which enable it to also improve soil structure,” said Larney.
– Saskatchewan Agriculture
Blood test cuts feed bills
A simple blood test could help cattle producers save money on their herd’s feed by reducing costly protein supplements without production losses, a U.S. department of agriculture animal scientist reports.
The test checks blood urea nitrogen levels that could reveal whether the animals’ bodies are wasting supplemental protein, said Andrew C. Hammond of USDA’s agricultural research service.
Micro-organisms in a cow’s stomach break down supplemental dietary nitrogen, producing ammonia that the micro-organisms then use to make protein. But if the diet is too low in energy, the micro-organisms don’t have enough energy to fuel their protein-making activities, resulting in excess ammonia. The ammonia is converted to urea by the animal’s body, and circulates in the blood to be recycled to the rumen or excreted via the kidneys.
“You can tell whether a diet is optimized for the protein-to-energy ratio by checking the urea nitrogen levels in the blood,” said Hammond, research leader at the Brooksville, Fla. research station that specializes in subtropical agriculture.
In field tests in Florida in 1991 and 1992, approximately 800 pregnant cows whose supplemental protein intake was guided by the tests, consumed 10 kilograms less supplement per cow over the winter period compared with another 800 pregnant cows fed a standard amount of protein supplement. The cows that received less supplement showed no adverse effects in calves’ weaning weights or the cows’ ability to rebreed, Hammond said.
In other field tests involving steers and heifers grazing warm-season grasses at Gainesville, Fla., Hammond and colleagues pinpointed nine to 12 milligrams of blood urea nitrogen per deciliter of blood as a “turning point” for balanced feeding of cattle.
“If the animal’s BUN concentration is more than 12 milligrams per deciliter of blood, you’re giving them dietary protein their bodies aren’t using,” Hammond said. “But if the BUN is below nine milligrams per deciliter of blood and you give them more protein, they’ll perform better.”
– USDA Research News
