Agri-Environmental Assessment of Pelletized Broiler Litter In Corn Production: Laboratory Studies.

Excess manure nutrients generated by the poultry industry on the Delmarva Peninsula have been identified as a major contributor to watershed-scale nutrient surpluses and thereby water quality degradation.  One innovative solution to this regional nutrient imbalance has been to transport excess poultry litter to a local pelletizing plant where it is converted into an organic fertilizer.  Widespread adoption of pelletized poultry litter (PPL) in commercial agriculture has been slow, in part due to the lack of knowledge about nutrient mineralization rates.  To gain understanding about N and P mineralization rates, we performed a laboratory incubation study to assess and compare mineralization in three nitrogen (N) sources: pelletized poultry litter, fresh poultry litter, and urea.  The three N sources plus one control (no N) were compared at two application rates (112 kg ha^-1 and 224 kg ha^-1) and on two types of soil, a silt loam and sandy loam.  The treated soils were incubated at 25°C, samples were collected 0, 1, 7, 30, 60, and 120 days after amendment, and analyzed for total N and P, nitrate (NO₃-N), ammonium (NH₄-N), water extractable P (WEP), and Mehlich 3 P. The results of the incubation study will be discussed.