Use of white clover as an alternative to nitrogen fertiliser for dairy pastures in nitrate vulnerable zones in the UK: productivity, environmental impact and economic considerations

Andrews, Mitchell; Scholefield, D.; Abberton, Michael T.; McKenzie, B. A.; Hodge, Simon; Raven, John A.

doi:10.1111/j.1744-7348.2007.00137.x

Cited by 80 publications

(95 citation statements)

References 74 publications

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“…, similar to that observed in the UK (Parsons et al 1991;Andrews et al 2007) and NZ (Woodfield and Clark 2009), although Jarvis (1993) suggested that in the UK, dairy pastures were typically much lower in both clover content (<10%) and the amount of N 2 fixed (10 kg ha -1 year -1 ). These low clover contents are likely to be suboptimal in terms of dairy production (Woodfield and Clark 2009) as well as N 2 fixation and thus efforts to increase N 2 fixation should be rewarded with increased milk production efficiency.…”

Section: The Achilles Heel: Low White Clover Content Of Pasturessupporting

confidence: 72%

“…While this is beyond the scope of the present review we can briefly consider some of the issues feeding into and out of legume N in dairy farming systems. More thorough environmental analyses of dairy farming systems can be found in a recent volume (de Klein et al 2008;Kleinman and Soder 2008;Nash and Barlow 2008) and a range of other relevant articles (Ridley et al 2004;Andrews et al 2007;Ledgard et al 2009;Woodfield and Clark 2009).…”

Section: Environmental Costs and Benefits Of N 2 Fixationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In a study in the UK, Andrews et al (2007) considered the relative merits of (i) an unfertilised perennial ryegrass/white clover pasture (ii) a perennial ryegrass pasture receiving 200 kg N ha -1 year -1…”

Section: Environmental Costs and Benefits Of N 2 Fixationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Nitrogen fixation in Australian dairy systems: review and prospect

Unkovich¹

2012

Crop Pasture Sci.

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Abstract. Quantitative measurement of N 2 fixation has rarely been conducted in Australian dairy pastures. The available data indicate that annual N 2 fixation rates in Australian dairy pastures are generally low, due to low pasture legume content. With typical legume contents of grazed pastures less than 30% of total pasture biomass production, annual N 2 fixation in herbage is usually much less than 50 kg ha -1 year -1 . Other factors which are likely to be able to contribute to increased N 2 fixation input (rhizobia, mineral N management, soil acidity, soil water contents) will have little impact until such time as legume contents are increased. In contrast, for some hay systems, such as those using lucerne, N 2 fixation input is shown to be high (200-300 kg ha). While pasture clover contents remain low there is little value in study or measurement of N 2 fixation, nor in complex modelling, as N 2 fixation will be of little quantitative importance. However, where legume contents, and thus potential N 2 fixation are increased, there is scope for investigation into potential increases in N input from this source, which is invariably linked to fertiliser application, the management of grazing and the N returns in urine and dung. These are the major influences on sward N dynamics and legume N 2 fixation. The inoculant rhizobia used for white clover in Australia (TA1) is likely to be suboptimal. Isolated in Tasmania in 1953 it has been shown to be inferior in N 2 fixation compared with other strains on several occasions. Root pests and diseases are likely to be prevalent and impact directly on clover root growth and perhaps nodulation.Modelling is often used to describe the probable influence of management and/or climate on the operation of agricultural systems. Reliable modelling of N 2 fixation requires capacity to integrate the effects of grazing and pasture composition on soil mineral N dynamics, the influence of this mineral N on nodulation and on suppression of N 2 fixation, and environmental and management influences on soil rhizobial populations. Currently no models have demonstrated this capacity. At present, a suitably calibrated regression model is probably a good option for modelling N 2 fixation in Australian dairy pastures.Environmental benefits ensuing from increasing N 2 fixation and substituting this for fertiliser N are likely to be greater offfarm (reduced GHG emissions at site of fertiliser manufacture) than on, if current fertiliser management is optimal. Nevertheless substituting fixed N for fertiliser N would have modest environmental and feed efficiency benefits.

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Section: The Achilles Heel: Low White Clover Content Of Pasturessupporting

confidence: 72%

Section: Environmental Costs and Benefits Of N 2 Fixationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Nitrogen fixation in Australian dairy systems: review and prospect

Unkovich¹

2012

Crop Pasture Sci.

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“…Among these strategies it has been investigated a reduced use of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers, splitting their annual application rate, use of slow release fertilizer (Adams et al, 2013), adjustment of supply the current demand, use of urease and/or nitrification inhibitors (Zaman et al, 2009), application of organic fertilizers, increased intervals between defoliation (Kennedy et al, 2006), and use of plants can take up and use nitrogen captured from soil. All these practices comply with the objective of increasing the efficiency of nitrogen use, reduce air pollution and Seasonal variation of the productivity and quality of permanent pastures in Adisols of temperate regions increase the protein content of the plants (Andrews et al, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seasonal variation of the productivity and quality of permanent pastures in Adisols of temperate regions

Demanet

Mora

Herrera

et al. 2015

J. Soil Sci. Plant Nutr.

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With the aim of evaluating the productivity (dry matter yield) and quality (protein and fiber) of pastures in temperate regions of Chile a long-term monitoring experiment was carried out in a representative farm in these regions. The study was carried during the years 2002 -2012 in a farm located at Region of Los Ríos, Chile. The study area was split into fifteen pasture sites, which were evaluated dry matter production by means of the standardized methodology, which considers the location on each pasture site a grazing exclusion cage. With the information generated during the 11 years of measurements, a trend pattern interpolation was developed by a polynomial regression model using fifth grade and centering the independent variable from the second grade on. Each result was classified according to the ranking provided by the BLUP methodology, comparing the results obtained with the average. The analysis of variance mixed model, determined by the variance components, indicated that 60% of the total variation in dry matter production is attributed to seasonality. Only 2.6% of the variation was attributable to the year while a 0.9% was due to differences between pastures sites, during the eleven years of study, with no significant data (p> 0.05). The seasonal distribution of production, concentrated its performance in spring and highest performing months were November, December, January. The quality measured as protein and fiber content of the pasture, does not present statistical differences between years and only differences were determined by seasonality.

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“…Ground water contamination: Nitrate (NO3 -) leaching losses from soil into the water bodies are not only the loss of soil fertility but have a tremendous effect on environment and human health (Goulding et al, 2008). Drinking of water and consumption of vegetables contaminated with NO3 -causing intestinal disease and it is associated with stomach cancer, as well (Andrews et al, 2007). Animal manures and commercial fertilizers have excess of nitrogen which cause many events of nitrate contamination in intensive agriculture especially in greenhouse vegetable production (Zhang et al, 1996;Li et al, 2002;Song et al, 2009).…”

Section: Nitrogen Losses Associated With Nitrification and Environmenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nitrogen Management in Calcareous Soils: Problems and Solutions

Maqsood¹,

Awan²,

Aziz³

et al. 2016

PAKJAS

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Nitrogen (N) is the most widely applied plant nutrient and is a key constituent of animal manures. Improvement in crop yields and high economic returns have been made possible through supplementation of crops with organic and inorganic fertilizers. The movement of N in the environment has been extensively studied and documented. The fate of N ranges from nitrification, denitrification, nitrous oxide formation, leaching of nitrate, and volatilization of ammonia. Even with this knowledge the variation in N movement within the soil, air and water varies greatly with changed edaphic factors. For instance the fate of N fertilizer under calcareous soil systems still has not been investigated widely. We reviewed the sporadic information available on N fate and management in calcareous soils especially in Pakistan. We discussed the sources and fate of N in calcareous soils of Pakistan and also the currently adopted and newly developed method to reduce the N losses.

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Use of white clover as an alternative to nitrogen fertiliser for dairy pastures in nitrate vulnerable zones in the UK: productivity, environmental impact and economic considerations

Cited by 80 publications

References 74 publications

Nitrogen fixation in Australian dairy systems: review and prospect

Nitrogen fixation in Australian dairy systems: review and prospect

Seasonal variation of the productivity and quality of permanent pastures in Adisols of temperate regions

Nitrogen Management in Calcareous Soils: Problems and Solutions

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