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TECHNICAL REPORTS
Plant and Environment Interactions

Nitrogen Removal and Nitrate Leaching for Forage Systems Receiving Dairy Effluent

Kenneth R. Woodard^*,a, Edwin C. French^,a, Lewin A. Sweat^a, Donald A. Graetz^a, Lynn E. Sollenberger^a, Bisoondat Macoon^d, Kenneth M. Portier^b, Brett L. Wade^a, Stuart J. Rymph^a, Gordon M. Prine^a and Harold H. Van Horn^c

^a Soil and Water Science Dep., Univ. of Florida, IFAS, Gainesville, FL 32611
^b Statistics Dep., Univ. of Florida, IFAS, Gainesville, FL 32611
^c Animal Sciences Dep., Univ. of Florida, IFAS, Gainesville, FL 32611
^d Central Mississippi Research and Extension Center, MSU, Raymond, MS 39154

* Corresponding author (krw{at}mail.ifas.ufl.edu)

Florida dairies need year-round forage systems that prevent loss of N to ground water from waste effluent sprayfields. Our purpose was to quantify forage N removal and monitor nitrate N (NO^-₃–N) concentrations in soil water below the rooting zone for two forage systems during four 12-mo cycles (1996–2000). Soil in the sprayfield is an excessively drained Kershaw sand (thermic, uncoated Typic Quartzipsamment). Over four cycles, average loading rates of effluent N were 500, 690, and 910 kg ha^-1 per cycle. Nitrogen removed by the bermudagrass (Cynodon spp.)–rye (Secale cereale L.) system (BR) during the first three cycles was 465 kg ha^-1 per cycle for the low loading rate, 528 kg ha^-1 for the medium rate, and 585 kg ha^-1 for the high. For the corn (Zea mays L.)–forage sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench]–rye system (CSR), N removals were 320 kg ha^-1 per cycle for the low rate, 327 kg ha^-1 for the medium, and 378 kg ha^-1 for the high. The higher N removals for BR were attributed to higher N concentration in bermudagrass (18.1–24.2 g kg^-1) than in corn and forage sorghum (10.3–14.7 g kg^-1). Dry matter yield declined in the fourth cycle for bermudagrass but N removal continued to be higher for BR than CSR. The BR system was much more effective at preventing NO^-₃–N leaching. For CSR, NO^-₃–N levels in soil water (1.5 m below surface) increased steeply during the period between the harvest of one forage and canopy closure of the next. Overall, the BR system was better than CSR at removing N from the soil and maintaining low NO^-₃–N concentrations below the rooting zone.

Abbreviations: BR, bermudagrass–rye system • CSR, corn–forage sorghum–rye system • DM, dry matter

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