Humic Acids Combined with Dairy Slurry as Fertilizer Can Increase Alfalfa Yield and Reduce Nitrogen Losses

Yanqin Huang, Huixian Shi, Erik Sindhøj, Guiyun Wang, Fuyuan Liu, Xingliang Gao, Huiying Du (), Lianzhu Du and Keqiang Zhang
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Yanqin Huang: Agro-Environmental Protection Institute, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Tianjin 300191, China
Huixian Shi: Agro-Environmental Protection Institute, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Tianjin 300191, China
Erik Sindhøj: Department of Agriculture and Food, RISE-Research Institutes of Sweden, P.O. Box 7033, 75758 Uppsala, Sweden
Guiyun Wang: BNU-HKUST Laboratory for Green Innovation, Advanced Institute of Natural Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai 519087, China
Fuyuan Liu: Institute of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine, Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural and Reclamation Sciences, Shihezi 832000, China
Xingliang Gao: Institute of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine, Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural and Reclamation Sciences, Shihezi 832000, China
Huiying Du: Agro-Environmental Protection Institute, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Tianjin 300191, China
Lianzhu Du: Agro-Environmental Protection Institute, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Tianjin 300191, China
Keqiang Zhang: Agro-Environmental Protection Institute, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Tianjin 300191, China

Agriculture, 2024, vol. 14, issue 8, 1-18

Abstract: Dairy slurry could be a significant source of nitrogen (N) for plants, but mismanagement can lead to atmospheric ammonia losses or nitrate leaching into groundwater. To make the use of dairy slurry efficient and reasonable, the loss of N pollution to the environment should be reduced. We used repacked lysimeters to comprehensively determine ammonia emission and N leaching losses in an alfalfa–soil system. The application of dairy slurry had no significant effect on alfalfa yield at the same rate of N application in comparison to chemical fertilizer, and adding humic acids significantly increased yield by about 12%. However, the application of dairy slurry increased the ammonia emission rate significantly, leading to an increase in the cumulative amount of ammonia emission, while the addition of humic acids reduced the ammonia emissions by 11%. Chemical fertilizer and dairy slurry application significantly increased nitrate leaching compared to the control treatment, while the addition of humic acids can significantly reduce ammonium N leaching. Dairy slurry was proven to be as effective as chemical N fertilizer in achieving the optimum biomass, and adding humic acids can significantly reduce N loss to the atmosphere and groundwater. This study showed the possibility of replacing chemical fertilizer with dairy slurry in alfalfa production and the advantages of humic acids’ addition to alfalfa to maintain production yield and improve environmental friendliness.

Keywords: alfalfa yield; aboveground biomass; soil organic matter; ammonia emission; nitrogen leaching; urease activity; agronomic traits; grow rate; photosynthetic characteristics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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