TY - JOUR
T1 - Dietary nutritive value, dung quality, decomposition, and nutrient movement into soil in smooth bromegrass pastures
AU - Schick, Bradley D.
AU - Guretzky, John A.
AU - Schacht, Walter H.
AU - Mamo, Martha
N1 - Funding Information:
The Nebraska Agricultural Experiment Station with funding from the Hatch Multistate Research capacity funding program (Accession no. 1005435) from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture supported this research The University of Nebraska Agricultural Experiment Station and the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture Hatch/Multi-State Project: Management and Environmental Factors Affecting Nitrogen Cycling and Use Efficiency in Forage-Based Livestock Production Systems (Accession 1005435, Project NEB-61-009, and Multistate NC1182) provided funding for this research.
Funding Information:
B.D. Schick, West Central Research & Extension Center, 621 North Cedar, Red Cloud, NE 68970; J.A. Guretzky, W.H. Schacht, and M. Mamo, Dep. of Agronomy and Horticulture, 279 Plant Sciences Hall, Univ. of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE, 68583-0915. The Nebraska Agricultural Experiment Station with funding from the Hatch Multistate Research capacity funding program (Accession no. 1005435) from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture supported this research. Received 26 Sept. 2018. Accepted 26 Dec. 2018. *Corresponding author (jguretzky2@unl.edu). Assigned to Associate Editor José Dubeux.
Funding Information:
The University of Nebraska Agricultural Experiment Station and the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture Hatch/Multi-State Project: Management and Environmental Factors Affecting Nitrogen Cycling and Use Efficiency in Forage-Based Livestock Production Systems (Accession 1005435, Project NEB-61-009, and Multistate NC1182) provided funding for this research.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 The Author(s).
PY - 2019/5/1
Y1 - 2019/5/1
N2 - Legumes increase forage nutritive value in pastures; however, literature addressing the impacts on dietary nutritive value, dung quality, decomposition, and nutrient movement into soil remains scarce. Cattle grazing legume-interseeded smooth bromegrass (Bromus inermis Leyss.) pastures may select diets with greater nutritive value and consequently produce dung that decomposes faster and increases nutrient movement into soil relative to cattle grazing N-fertilized and unfertilized smooth bromegrass pastures. In 2014 and 2015, we collected rumen and dung samples from replicated experiments to evaluate effects of season (June and August), pasture type (legume-interseeded, N-fertilized, and unfertilized pastures), and harvest time (3, 7, and 30 d after deposition) on dietary nutritive value, dung quality, dung decomposition, and nutrient movement into soil. Cattle grazing legume-interseeded pastures had similar dietary crude protein concentrations but 11% less dietary neutral detergent fiber concentrations than cattle grazing N-fertilized pastures. Dung from cattle grazing legume-interseeded pastures, meanwhile, had 5 to 12% greater N concentrations than dung from cattle grazing N-fertilized and unfertilized pastures. From 3 to 30 d after deposition, dung C/N ratio decreased from 20.0 to 16.5; whereas, dry matter remaining diminished to 77.5%. Dung C/N ratio and dry matter remaining did not vary with season or pasture type. At Day 7, soil below dung from cattle grazing legume-interseeded pastures had 20 and 42% greater inorganic N than soil below dung from N-fertilized and unfertilized pastures. This research showed that pastures with legumes increases dietary nutritive value, resulting in greater dung quality and increased N movement into soil.
AB - Legumes increase forage nutritive value in pastures; however, literature addressing the impacts on dietary nutritive value, dung quality, decomposition, and nutrient movement into soil remains scarce. Cattle grazing legume-interseeded smooth bromegrass (Bromus inermis Leyss.) pastures may select diets with greater nutritive value and consequently produce dung that decomposes faster and increases nutrient movement into soil relative to cattle grazing N-fertilized and unfertilized smooth bromegrass pastures. In 2014 and 2015, we collected rumen and dung samples from replicated experiments to evaluate effects of season (June and August), pasture type (legume-interseeded, N-fertilized, and unfertilized pastures), and harvest time (3, 7, and 30 d after deposition) on dietary nutritive value, dung quality, dung decomposition, and nutrient movement into soil. Cattle grazing legume-interseeded pastures had similar dietary crude protein concentrations but 11% less dietary neutral detergent fiber concentrations than cattle grazing N-fertilized pastures. Dung from cattle grazing legume-interseeded pastures, meanwhile, had 5 to 12% greater N concentrations than dung from cattle grazing N-fertilized and unfertilized pastures. From 3 to 30 d after deposition, dung C/N ratio decreased from 20.0 to 16.5; whereas, dry matter remaining diminished to 77.5%. Dung C/N ratio and dry matter remaining did not vary with season or pasture type. At Day 7, soil below dung from cattle grazing legume-interseeded pastures had 20 and 42% greater inorganic N than soil below dung from N-fertilized and unfertilized pastures. This research showed that pastures with legumes increases dietary nutritive value, resulting in greater dung quality and increased N movement into soil.
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U2 - 10.2135/cropsci2018.09.0587
DO - 10.2135/cropsci2018.09.0587
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85067982388
SN - 0011-183X
VL - 59
SP - 1294
EP - 1308
JO - Crop Science
JF - Crop Science
IS - 3
ER -