Tuesday, 7 October 2008
624-17
Starter and Season-Long P Effects of Dairy Manure Solids Injected Near Corn (Zea Mays L.) Rows.
Aiguo Liu, Shabtai Bittman, Tom Forge, Grant Kowalenko, Derek Hunt, Frederic Bounaix, Martin Chantigny, and Katherine Buckley. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Agassiz Research Station, Agric.Canada POB 1000, Agassiz, BC V0M 1A0, CANADA
Corn (Zea mays L.) often benefits from mineral P fertilizer placed near the seed at planting. There is often an abundance of P in manure on dairy farms but the possibility of injecting high-P separated manure solids near corn seed rows as a substitute for starter P fertilizer is not well known. The objective of this study was to determine the benefit of decanted manure sludge injected at various distances (5-15cm, nominally) from corn rows in terms of early and season-long effect relative to fertilizer. Field studies were conducted in a mild maritime climate in coastal British Columbia, Canada. The manure was injected at corn row spacing (15 cm depth) a few days prior to planting. Corn responded positively to injected manure at the 3-6 leaf stages with no evidence of damage to the seedlings. Response of corn to P declined with spacing distance; best growth was at 5cm spacing. At equivalent rates of P application, all performance indicators at harvest were similar for fertilizer and manure. Dairy farmers can use manure sludge collected from the bottom of storages to replace P fertilizer for corn.