Best Management Practices (BMPs) for Nitrogen Fertilizer in Forage Grasses

Abstract

There is a concern about the growing population and limitation in natural resources which are taking the population to direct its agricultural systems into a more productive and efficient activity, looking to avoid a negative impact on the surrounding environment. The industry energy expended to produce nitrogen (N)-fertilizer is considered an indirect consumption of energy in agriculture, which is higher with an increasing forage yield. Nitrogen is the key nutrient associated with high-yielding production in forage grass and grain crops. The aim of this chapter is to introduce the best management practices (BMPs) for N-fertilizer application in forage grasses to improve N-use efficiency, since the most economical way to feed livestock is forage plants where its potential biomass production is not well explored. The BMPs basically follow three management practices: (1) soil nutrient availability and forage requirement, (2) fertilizer application, and (3) decrease in nutrient losses from soil. In order to take a decision on applying N-fertilizer to accomplish forage grasses production with social, economic, and environmental benefits, the N-fertilizer use in forage grasses is going to follow the "Right rate, Right source, Right place, and Right time (4R) nutrient stewardship." The application of the 4R's nutrients stewardship is directly associated with economic, social, and environmental impact. The capacity of the 4R's implementation worldwide turns into a best guide to improve the striving of better N-use efficiency in forage grass. The 4R's are interrelated; thus, the recommendation of N-fertilizer rates cannot be prescribed without the combination of the 4R's where a whole system to be followed should be considered to decide about N-fertilizer in pasture. Consequently, any decision in one of the 4R's is going to affect the expected N-fertilizer results and dry matter production.

Interactive effects of growth stage and nitrogen fertilization on herbage characteristics and nutritive value of Paspalum atratum

“…It is also likely that the higher green leaf proportion in 6‐week regrowth P. atratum could have contributed to the reduction in fiber and lignin in response to N fertilizer application. The CP content in tropical grass forages respond positively to N fertilization (Serra et al, 2018). However, the nature of the response, whether linear or polynomial, seems to be influenced by application rates as well as soil N status.…”

Effects of Bacillus sp. MR‐1/2 and magnetite nanoparticles on yield improvement of rice by urea fertilizer under different watering regimes

“…The low N uptake and poor N use efficiency are due to the fact that a substantial portion of applied nitrogenous fertilizer is lost through leaching, volatilization and run off (Asghari and Cavagnaro 2011). Furthermore, the current use of the nitrogenous fertilizer urea has the problem of poor N use efficiency in Pakistani soils, because the N in this fertilizer is disappeared soon after the fertilizer application (Serra et al 2017). Therefore, it is necessary to enhance N use efficiency and productivity of crops by minimizing the nitrogenous losses.…”