Managing nutrients across regions of the United States

Abstract

Nutrient balance in the ecosystem involves profitability of the agricultural enterprise and commitments to resource management to maintain quality of air, water, and land resources. Phosphorus and N are the two nutrients of major concern, and they behave differently in soils. Most P adheres strongly to soil particles and moves laterally with the soil during erosion processes, but with high concentrations more P remains in soluble forms and moves in the water fraction. Most N is soluble and moves laterally or downward with soil water. Soil scientists and agronomists have researched soil processes, plant nutrition, cropping systems, and water quality issues mainly on a field and farm level, but now the movement is to management and regulation of nonpoint problems on a watershed basis as proposed in the Clean Water Action Plan. The plan recognizes the vast diversity of soil parent materials and climates among geographic areas, even among and within watersheds, that determine crop adaptation and cropping systems, the role of states in regulatory processes, and the need for local citizens to have operational involvement. This process insures that nutrient management guidelines will be more site-specific and solutions can be focused on the direct problem. Directed efforts will be needed to educate local citizens, landowners, and caretakers of agricultural enterprises, and regulatory agencies. Several factors, including economic and social incentives for implementation must be considered along with the technologies available. The solutions are multidisciplinary, will require long-term research to accommodate climate variation, and should be associated with a strong commitment to education. Public funding will be needed to support the effort.

Relationship Between Content of Crude Protein in Rations for Dairy Cows and Milk Yield, Concentration of Urea in Milk and Ammonia Emissions

“…In Europe, considerable efforts have been made to decrease the environmental influence from the whole livestock sector, for example in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden (Kuipers and Mandersloot, 1999;Jakobsson, 1999). Also, in the United States, a process has started to diminish the environmental problems caused by animal production, and this process seems to be accelerating (Nelson, 1999;Meyer et al, 1999). Initially, the focus has been on nitrogen and phosphorus (Chalupa and Ferguson, 1996).…”

Whole-animal nitrogen balance in cattle.

“…Major concerns include environmental consequences of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) loading. The greatest environmental effect of N loss in manure is a result of rapid conversion of urea to ammonia and its subsequent volatilization (Nelson, 1999;James et al, 1999), which affects the acidity of precipitation (Van Horn and Hall, 1997), formation of long-lasting aerosols (James et al, 1999), and reduction of the N:P ratio of the residual manure below plant requirements (Van Horn and Hall, 1997;Van Horn et al, 1996). We note that reduction of excreted P (see other chapters) influences this ratio favorably.…”

“…Disposal of animal manure has dramatically escalated to be one of the foremost research problems for dairy nutrition and management in the US (Meyer and Mullinax, 1999;Nelson, 1999;Van Horn and Hall, 1997) and internationally (Kohn et al, 1997;Kuipers et al, 1999;Castillo et al, 2000;Castillo et al, 2001b). Major concerns include environmental consequences of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) loading.…”

Sustainable cow-calf operations and water quality: A review

“…Nutrient balance in the ecosystem involves profitability of the agricultural enterprise and commitments to resource management to maintain quality of air, water and land resources. The role of nutrient management in livestock systems takes on new meaning as producers and the public together consider economic and noneconomic issues (Nelson, 1999). The intensification of livestock production with its associated increased demand for fodder has encouraged farmers to rely more heavily on chemical fertilizers and imported feeds, and very often the waste is considered as a disposal problem rather than useful source of plant nutrients .…”