The intensive production of herbage for crop-drying III. The effect of the continued application of nitrogenous fertilizers to grassland

Extract

1. The experiment previously described (series 4, Holmes, 1949) on the effect of massive applications of nitrogenous fertilizers on the productivity of a ryegrass dominant pasture was continued for 3 years (1946, 1947, 1948). The manurial treatments ranged from none to the application of 312 lb. nitrogen per acre and this was applied with and without 135 lb. P₂O₅ and 168 lb. K₂O per acre. Farmyard manure was applied to one block in 1948.

2. With the heaviest nitrogen treatment plus phosphate and potash the average yield for 3 years was 8000 lb. dry matter and 1640 lb. crude protein (similar to the yield in 1946) compared with a control yield of 4720 lb. dry matter and 590 lb. crude protein. The yields declined from year to year when phosphate and potash were not applied, the decline being greatest with the heaviest application of nitrogen.

3. The seasonal distribution of the yield of herbage was very considerably modified by the time when fertilizers were applied.

4. The botanical composition of the swards was related to the yield, 70% of the grasses in the highest yielding sward being perennial ryegrass and cocksfoot while the lowest yielding sward contained only 35% of these grasses.

5. The manurial treatments had no effect on the pH, loss on ignition or the content of readily soluble P₂O₅ in the soil, but in the first year there was some evidence of a general reduction of readily soluble K₂O to a low level.