Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T04:59:55.810Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Effects of fertilizer nitrogen on soil nitrogen availability after a grazed grass ley and on the response of the following cereal crops to fertilizer nitrogen

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2009

J. Webb  and
R. Sylvester-Bradley
J. Webb
Affiliation:
ADAS, Nobel House, 17 Smith Square, London SW1P3JR, UK
R. Sylvester-Bradley
Affiliation:
ADAS Soil and Water Research Centre, Trumpington, Cambridge CB2 2LF, UK
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Nitrogen nutrition of two succeeding wheat crops was studied after ploughing of grassland in July 1987 on a clay soil at ADAS Drayton. The four plots of grassland had received 100, 250, 450 and 750 kg N/ha per year for 4 years from 1984 and were grazed by beef cattle at stocking densities which varied according to grass growth.

Determinations of soil mineral N taken to 60 cm every 3 weeks from July to the following May were particularly variable. However, in the first 2 years after ploughing the means of the series of mineral N measurements were directly proportional to the amounts of fertilizer N applied to the grass.

N offtake in winter wheat grain without fertilizer N was directly proportional to fertilizer N applied to grass but this had little effect on maximum grain yields. Large soil N supplies did not necessarily predispose the wheat crops to large grain N concentrations because fertilizer N caused grain N offtake to reach a similar maximum, irrespective of previous grass N.

Optimum amounts of fertilizer N for the wheat were 188, 147, 87 and nil kg/ha in 1988 and 152,130, 89 and 25 kg/ha in 1989 after 100, 250, 450 and 750 kg N/ha per year applied to the grass. Soil N supply as indicated by both the amount of fertilizer applied to grass and means of mineral N measurements accounted for almost all of this variation. Mean soil mineral N over winter was no better as an indicator of soil N supply than the amount of N applied to the grass. However, before adopting N applied to grass as a more general index of N supply, it would need to be adjusted for variation in N removed and lost during grass growth; these were controlled in this experiment.

Type
Crops and Soils
Information
The Journal of Agricultural Science , Volume 122 , Issue 3 , June 1994 , pp. 445 - 457
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baker, R. D. (1987). Sward and animal responses to fertilizer nitrogen. In The Institute of Grassland and Animal Production Animal and Grassland Research Stations Annual Report for 1987. IGER, Hurley.Google Scholar
Bloom, T. M., Sylvester-Bradley, R., Vaidyanathan, L. V. & Murray, A. W. A. (1988). Apparent recovery of fertilizer nitrogen by winter wheat. In Nitrogen Efficiency in Agricultural Soils (Eds Jenkinson, D. S. & Smith, K. A.), pp. 27–37. London: Elsevier Applied Science.Google Scholar
Chaney, K. (1990). Effect of nitrogen fertilizer rate on soil nitrate nitrogen content after harvesting winter wheat. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 114, 171–176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clement, C. R. & Williams, T. E. (1967). Leys and soil organic matter. II. Accumulation of nitrogen in soils under different leys. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 69, 133–138.Google Scholar
Cuttle, S. P. & Bourne, P. C. (1992). Nitrogen immobilisation and leaching in pasture soils. In Proceedings of the Fertilizer Society, London. Peterborough: Fisherprint.Google Scholar
Dilz, K. (1988). Efficiency of uptake and utilisation of fertilizer nitrogen by plants. In Nitrogen Efficiency in Agricultural Soils (Eds Jenkinson, D. S. & Smith, K. A.), pp. 1–26. London: Elsevier Applied Science.Google Scholar
George, B. J. (1984). Design and interpretation of nitrogen response experiments. In The Nitrogen Requirement of Cereals (Eds Needham, P., Archer, J. R., Sylvester-Bradley, R. & Goodlass, G.), pp. 133–150. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Harris, G. L. (1991). Soil drainage and crop management strategies to minimise pesticide leaching. In Proceedings of the Brimstone Conference, pp. 55–69. ADAS/IACR.Google Scholar
Horne, B. (1973). Leys and soil fertility. Part 1. Crop production (first 12 years). Experimental Husbandry 23 86–103.Google Scholar
Macdonald, A. J., Powlson, D. S., Poulton, P. R. & Jenkinson, D. S. (1989). Unused fertiliser nitrogen on arable soils – its contribution to nitrate leaching. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture 46, 407–419.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. (1986). Analysis of Agricultural Materials, 3rd Edn. Reference Book 427. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. (1988). Fertilizer Recommendations. MAFF Reference Book 209. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Rennie, R. J. & Rennie, D. A. (1973). Standard isotope versus nitrogen balance criteria for assessing the efficiency of nitrogen sources for barley. Canadian Journal of Soil Science 53, 73–77.Google Scholar
Rogers, G. A., Penny, A. & Hewitt, M. V. (1985). Effects of nitrification inhibitors on uptake of mineralised nitrogen and on yields of winter cereals grown on sandy soil after ploughing old grassland. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture 36, 915–924.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ryden, J. C. (1984). The flow of nitrogen in grassland. In Proceedings of the Fertilizer Society, London. London: Purley Press.Google Scholar
Scholefield, D., Lockyer, D. R., Whitehead, D. C. & Tyson, K. C. (1991). A model to predict transformation and losses of nitrogen in UK pastures grazed by beef cattle. Plant and Soil 132, 165–177.Google Scholar
Shepherd, M. A. (1993). Measurement of soil mineral nitrogen to predict the response of winter wheat to fertilizer nitrogen after applications of organic manures or after ploughed-out grass. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 121, 223–231.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sylvester-Bradley, R. & Chambers, B. J. (1992). The implications of restricting use of fertilizer nitrogen for the productivity of arable crops, their profitability and potential pollutions by nitrate. Aspects of Applied Biology 30, 85–94.Google Scholar
Sylvester-Bradley, R., Dampney, P. M. R. & Murray, A. W. A.(1984). The response of winter wheat to nitrogen. In The Nitrogen Requirement of Cereals (Eds Needham, P., Archer, J. R., Sylvester-Bradley, R. & Goodlass, G.), pp. 151–176. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Thompson, N., Barrie, I. A. & Ayles, M. (1981). The Meteorological Office Rainfall and Evaporation Calculation System: MORECS (July 1981). UK Meteorological Office Hydrological Memorandum No. 45. Bracknell: Met Office.Google Scholar
Vaidyanathan, L. V., Sylvester-Bradley, R., Bloom, T. M. & Murray, A. W. A. (1987). Effects of previous cropping and applied nitrogen on grain nitrogen content in winter wheat. Aspects of Applied Biology 15, Cereal Quality, 227–237.Google Scholar
Vaidyanathan, L. V., Shepherd, M. A. & Chambers, B. J. (1991). Mineral nitrogen arising from soil organic matter and organic manures related to winter wheat production. In Advances in Soil Organic Matter Research (Ed. Wilson, W. S.), pp. 315–327. Cambridge: Royal Society of Chemistry.Google Scholar
Whitehead, D. C, Bristow, A. W. & Lockyer, D. R. (1990). Organic matter and nitrogen in the unharvested fractions of grass swards in relation to the potential for nitrate leaching after ploughing. Plant and Soil 123, 39–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, P. H., Hedley, M. J. & Gregg, P. E. H. (1989). Uptake of potassium and nitrogen by pasture from urineaffected soil. New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Research 32, 415–421.Google Scholar
Williams, T. E., Clement, C. R. & Heard, A. J. (1960). Soil nitrogen status of leys and subsequent wheat yields. In Proceedings of the Eighth International Grassland Congress (Eds Skidmore, C. L., Boyle, P. J. & Raymond, L. W.), pp. 237–241. Oxford: Alden Press.Google Scholar