Nitrate leaching losses from lysimeters simulating winter grazing of fodder beet by dairy cows

Figures & data

Table 1. Initial soil fertility status of the lysimeter collection site prior to basal fertiliser applications in 2012. All units are in ‘MAF quick-test units’ unless specified (Mountier et al. 1966).

Soil property	Value	Methodology
pH	5.9	Water/soil ratio of 2:1 (v/v)
Olsen P (mg L^−1)	29	Olsen et al. (1954)
Sulphate S (mg kg^−1)	21	Searle (1988)
Cation exchange capacity (cmolc kg^−1)	14	Hesse (1971)
Total N (%)	0.43	Keeney & Bremner (1966)
Exchangeable Ca	8	Blackmore et al. (1972)
Exchangeable Mg	10	Blackmore et al. (1972)
Exchangeable K	14	Blackmore et al. (1972)
Exchangeable Na	5	Blackmore et al. (1972)

Figure 1. Daily rainfall, cumulative rainfall + irrigation (i.e. all water inputs) and cumulative supplementary winter rainfall (June–September) following cow urine treatment applications to lysimeters. A, 2012; B, 2013.

Figure 2. Nitrate-N concentrations (mg N L^-1) in drainage water following cow urine treatment applications to lysimeters. A, 2012; B, 2013.

Table 2. Total nitrate-N (NO₃⁻-N) leached (means obtained by back-transformation of log10 transformed data) from lysimeters treated with cow urine at 0, 300 (2012) and 250 kg N ha⁻¹ (2013).

Urinary N rate (kg N ha^−1)	Total amount of NO3^−-N leached (kg N ha^−1)	Amount of NO3^−-N leached as % of urinary N applied
2012
0	10.3	N/A
300	63.5	21.2
P value	< 0.001	–
LSR (5%)	2.1	–
2013
0	11.1	N/A
250	78.7	31.5
P value	< 0.001	–
LSR (5%)	1.6	–

LSR, least significant ratio.

Residual d.f. 7.

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