Improving the agro-environmental value of solid cattle manure

194 Pages·2013·8.73 MB·English

Improving the agro-environmental
value of solid cattle manure

Ghulam Abbas Shah
Thesis committee

Promotor
Prof. Dr P.W.G. Groot Koerkamp
Professor of Biosystems Engineering
Wageningen University

Co-promotors
Dr E.A. Lantinga
Associate professor, Farming Systems Ecology Group
Wageningen University

Dr J.C.J. Groot
Assistant professor, Farming Systems Ecology Group
Wageningen University

Other members
Prof. Dr O. Oenema, Wageningen University
Prof. Dr E. Hoffland, Wageningen University
Dr C.M. Groenestein, Wageningen University
Dr P. Demeyer, Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research (ILVO),
Merelbeke, Belgium

This research was conducted under the auspices of the C.T. de Wit Graduate School
for Production Ecology and Resource Conservation
Improving the agro-environmental
value of solid cattle manure

Ghulam Abbas Shah

Thesis
submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of doctor
at Wageningen University
by the authority of the Rector Magnificus
Prof. Dr M.J. Kropff,
in the presence of the
Thesis Committee appointed by the Academic Board
to be defended in public
on Monday 9 September 2013
at 11 a.m. in the Aula.
Ghulam Abbas Shah
Improving the agro-environmental value of solid cattle manure,
194 pages.

PhD thesis, Wageningen University, Wageningen, NL (2013)
With references, with summaries in Dutch and English

ISBN 978-94-6173-649-9
This dissertation is dedicated to
my beloved mother

Table of contents
Chapter 1: General introduction 9
Chapter 2: Effects of bedding additives on carbon and nitrogen losses 19
from a sloping-floor cattle housing system
Chapter 3: Bedding additives reduce nitrogen losses and improve 49
fertilizer value of solid cattle manure
Chapter 4: Effects of storage methods on magnitude and routes of 77
carbon and nitrogen losses during storage and maize nitrogen
recovery after field application of solid cattle manure
Chapter 5: Simulation of long-term carbon and nitrogen dynamics in 105
grassland-based dairy farming systems to evaluate mitigation
strategies for nutrient losses
Chapter 6: General discussion 129
Summary 143
Samenvatting (summary in Dutch) 149
References 155
Acknowledgements 179
Curriculum vitae 185
Publications 187
Educational certificate of the Graduate School PE&RC 191

Chapter 1

General introduction
Chapter 1

1.1 Background and problem statement
As a result of an expanding livestock production sector, the production of livestock
manure increases in many regions of the world. Most of this increase occurs in the
developing world (Bouwman et al., 2006). Cattle are the major source of animal
manure in the world due to their large number and high daily excretion rates
(Sheldrick et al., 2003). The fertilizer value of manure depends on its initial
composition and on conversion and loss processes before plant uptake takes place.
These processes are strongly influenced by handling methods within the manure
management chain, i.e. animal housing – manure storage – manure application. In
the developing world, cattle manure is mainly handled as a solid mixture of faeces,
urine, bedding material and spoiled feed. It is regularly scraped from the earth or
concrete floors of the barns and composted before application to the field as a plant
fertilizer or soil amelioration. In addition, it is considered as an appreciable fuel for
cooking or building material in these countries (Brandjes et al., 1996). In North
America and Western Europe, most of the cattle manure is currently being handled
as slurry, which is a mixture of urine, faeces and spoiled water collected from
cubicle barns (Petersen et al., 2007). However, the proportion of solid cattle manure
(SCM) is increasing again due to growing interest of farmers in switching back to
straw-based housing systems after concerns about animal health and welfare in
common cubicle barns. Moreover, SCM is an excellent soil amendment capable of
increasing soil quality. Dick (1992), in a review, found that there is in general a
positive relationship between soil carbon (C) content and soil microbial biomass,
and concluded that any practice that increases the amount of soil organic matter
(OM), such as SCM application, improves its biological activity. Rashid et al. (in
review) reported higher density and biomass of earthworms and enchytraeids on
sandy grassland soils with a history of SCM application as compared to ones with a
slurry application history. In addition, increases in soil organic nitrogen (N) content
and biological activity contribute to an increase of soil N mineralization, hence
available N for crop growth. On the other hand, according to a modelling study of
Hutchings et al. (2001), total ammonia (NH ) emissions from the solid manure-
3
based management chain (deep litter barn, open storage and field application) were
10