System for value-added export of manure nitrogen and phosphorus through turfgrass sod

System for value-added export of manure nitrogen and phosphorus through turfgrass sod

Summary

Objectives
High transportation costs have constrained export of manure sources of phosphorus and nitrogen from Texas farms and watersheds that contain large densities of livestock.
Dairy and turf producers and extension and research faculty are learning together as they:
1.) develop and evaluate a system of sod production, marketing, and transplanting that uses, exports, and minimizes losses of manure sources of nitrogen and phosphorus
2.) evaluate the economical feasibility of using manure in sod production and of integrated turf and livestock production.

Approach
The project team was expanded to include additional faculty from Virginia Tech. and Texas A&M University and a USDA scientist from Temple, Texas. Team members were updated concerning the progress of plot-scale research and on-farm demonstrations during meetings in September and October, 2000. The next project meeting is scheduled in January, 2001. The research information and knowledge and experience of participants will be used to develop recommendations for sod production and transplanting of ‘Tifway’ bermudagrass, ‘Palisades’ Zoysiagrass, and ‘Reveille’ bluegrass.

In plot-scale studies, duration between sod harvests and phosphorus removal in sod is being evaluated for annual manure rates that provide 100 and 200 kilograms phosphorus per hectare, with and without supplemental nitrogen fertilizer applications. The manure treatments are compared to treatments that receive nitrogen and phosphorus as fertilizer only and zero nutrient inputs. Periods of both drought and excessive rainfall delayed sod harvests during Summer and Fall, 2000, but treatments of both bermudagrass and bluegrass were harvested. Even at the larger phosphorus rate, applied as manure, supplemental nitrogen fertilizer was needed to equal the duration between harvests of the treatment that received fertilizer nitrogen and phosphorus only.

In one on-farm demonstration, Mark Quinn and Sam Peterson showed Tifway bermudagrass sod could be harvested just four months after planting in soil that received manure rates starting at 176 kilograms phosphorus per hectare. In an on-farm demonstration on Harold Pack’s dairy, production responses and phosphorus removal in sod of Tifway bermudagrass and Reveille bluegrass will be quantified after applications of composted manure, with and without supplemental nitrogen fertilizer.

Nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations and content in soil and surface runoff are being measured for replicated plots that receive manure and fertilizer sources of phosphorus. Phosphorus rates of 25 and 50 kilograms per hectare in fertilizer are being compared to rates of 50 and 100 kilograms per hectare in manure and an unfertilized control. During monitoring periods in Spring and Fall, phosphorus concentrations in soil and runoff were positively and directly related. In place of the comparison among phosphorus rates of manure and fertilizer, sod is currently being harvested from production plots and transplanted to the replicated runoff plots. Nitrogen and phosphorus losses in runoff will be compared between the transplanted sod, manure treatments on soil exposed after sod harvest, and unfertilized controls. In addition, phosphorus losses in runoff of simulated rainfall on sod transplanted from the Quinn dairy will be monitored.

Project participants will use the plot- and pilot-scale monitoring of sod production and nutrient content to evaluate the economic and environmental impacts of the system for exporting manure sources of nitrogen and phosphorus through sod. The high wholesale price of sod will add value to manure sources of nutrients, encourage multiple land uses and enterprise diversity, and pay the cost of reducing nutrients loads on impaired watersheds. The integrated dairy and sod system will be disseminated through producer networks, field days and tours, a web site, and technical and semi-popular literature.

Collaborators: