Very Low Nitrogen Leaching in Grazed Ley-Arable-Systems in Northwest Europe

High input dairy farms that are located on sandy soils in northwest Europe are predisposed to substantial nitrate leaching during a surplus of winter precipitation. Leys within integrated crop-livestock systems play an important role in soil fertility, soil C sequestration and soil N mineralization...

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Autores principales:	Hendrik P. J. Smit, Thorsten Reinsch, Christof Kluß, Ralf Loges, Friedhelm Taube
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	MDPI AG 2021
Materias:	leys groundwater rotational grazing organic farming multi-species swards Agriculture S
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/d356dd1d77e24e29aded6ff0a8c3c672
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:d356dd1d77e24e29aded6ff0a8c3c6722021-11-25T16:04:34ZVery Low Nitrogen Leaching in Grazed Ley-Arable-Systems in Northwest Europe10.3390/agronomy111121552073-4395https://doaj.org/article/d356dd1d77e24e29aded6ff0a8c3c6722021-10-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.mdpi.com/2073-4395/11/11/2155https://doaj.org/toc/2073-4395High input dairy farms that are located on sandy soils in northwest Europe are predisposed to substantial nitrate leaching during a surplus of winter precipitation. Leys within integrated crop-livestock systems play an important role in soil fertility, soil C sequestration and soil N mineralization potentials. Therefore, leys are a feasible option that can be utilized to reduce local N losses to the environment, especially following maize grown for silage. We hypothesize that grass-clover leys ensure low nitrate leaching losses even when grazed intensively. The extent to which NO<sub>3</sub>-leaching occurred across seven different pasture management systems in terms of their sward composition, cutting, grazing, fertilization and combinations thereof was investigated in integrated animal-crop grazing systems over three winter periods (2017/2018, 2018/2019 and 2019/2020). The observed grazed systems were comprised of cut-used- and grazed grass-clover swards (0, 1 and 2 years after establishment following cereals), a catch crop grazed late in the year as well as a cut-used permanent grassland for comparison. Overall, all treatments resulted in nitrate leaching losses that did not exceed the WHO-threshold (25 mg nitrate/L). The highest level of NO<sub>3</sub>-leaching was observed in the catch crop system and the lowest in cut-used permanent grassland, with NO<sub>3</sub>-N losses of 19.6 ± 5.3 and 2.1 ± 0.3 kg NO<sub>3</sub>-N ha<sup>−1</sup> year<sup>−1</sup>. Annual herbage yields were in the range of 0.9 to 12.4 t DM ha<sup>−1</sup> and nitrogen yields varied between 181 ± 51 and 228 ± 66 kg N ha<sup>−1</sup> during the study period. The highest herbage-N-yields were observed from the 1- and 2-year-old grass-clover leys. The highest N-field-balance was observed for the grazed leys and the lowest for the cut-used permanent grassland. However, no correlation was found between the highly positive field-N-balance and the amount of NO<sub>3</sub>-leached. This indicates a high N carry-over from grass-clover swards to the subsequent cash crop unit instead of increasing the risk of groundwater contamination from grazed leys in integrated animal crop-systems and underlines the eco-efficiency of dairy farming based on grazed ley systems.Hendrik P. J. SmitThorsten ReinschChristof KlußRalf LogesFriedhelm TaubeMDPI AGarticleleysgroundwaterrotational grazingorganic farmingmulti-species swardsAgricultureSENAgronomy, Vol 11, Iss 2155, p 2155 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	leys groundwater rotational grazing organic farming multi-species swards Agriculture S
spellingShingle	leys groundwater rotational grazing organic farming multi-species swards Agriculture S Hendrik P. J. Smit Thorsten Reinsch Christof Kluß Ralf Loges Friedhelm Taube Very Low Nitrogen Leaching in Grazed Ley-Arable-Systems in Northwest Europe
description	High input dairy farms that are located on sandy soils in northwest Europe are predisposed to substantial nitrate leaching during a surplus of winter precipitation. Leys within integrated crop-livestock systems play an important role in soil fertility, soil C sequestration and soil N mineralization potentials. Therefore, leys are a feasible option that can be utilized to reduce local N losses to the environment, especially following maize grown for silage. We hypothesize that grass-clover leys ensure low nitrate leaching losses even when grazed intensively. The extent to which NO<sub>3</sub>-leaching occurred across seven different pasture management systems in terms of their sward composition, cutting, grazing, fertilization and combinations thereof was investigated in integrated animal-crop grazing systems over three winter periods (2017/2018, 2018/2019 and 2019/2020). The observed grazed systems were comprised of cut-used- and grazed grass-clover swards (0, 1 and 2 years after establishment following cereals), a catch crop grazed late in the year as well as a cut-used permanent grassland for comparison. Overall, all treatments resulted in nitrate leaching losses that did not exceed the WHO-threshold (25 mg nitrate/L). The highest level of NO<sub>3</sub>-leaching was observed in the catch crop system and the lowest in cut-used permanent grassland, with NO<sub>3</sub>-N losses of 19.6 ± 5.3 and 2.1 ± 0.3 kg NO<sub>3</sub>-N ha<sup>−1</sup> year<sup>−1</sup>. Annual herbage yields were in the range of 0.9 to 12.4 t DM ha<sup>−1</sup> and nitrogen yields varied between 181 ± 51 and 228 ± 66 kg N ha<sup>−1</sup> during the study period. The highest herbage-N-yields were observed from the 1- and 2-year-old grass-clover leys. The highest N-field-balance was observed for the grazed leys and the lowest for the cut-used permanent grassland. However, no correlation was found between the highly positive field-N-balance and the amount of NO<sub>3</sub>-leached. This indicates a high N carry-over from grass-clover swards to the subsequent cash crop unit instead of increasing the risk of groundwater contamination from grazed leys in integrated animal crop-systems and underlines the eco-efficiency of dairy farming based on grazed ley systems.
format	article
author	Hendrik P. J. Smit Thorsten Reinsch Christof Kluß Ralf Loges Friedhelm Taube
author_facet	Hendrik P. J. Smit Thorsten Reinsch Christof Kluß Ralf Loges Friedhelm Taube
author_sort	Hendrik P. J. Smit
title	Very Low Nitrogen Leaching in Grazed Ley-Arable-Systems in Northwest Europe
title_short	Very Low Nitrogen Leaching in Grazed Ley-Arable-Systems in Northwest Europe
title_full	Very Low Nitrogen Leaching in Grazed Ley-Arable-Systems in Northwest Europe
title_fullStr	Very Low Nitrogen Leaching in Grazed Ley-Arable-Systems in Northwest Europe
title_full_unstemmed	Very Low Nitrogen Leaching in Grazed Ley-Arable-Systems in Northwest Europe
title_sort	very low nitrogen leaching in grazed ley-arable-systems in northwest europe
publisher	MDPI AG
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/d356dd1d77e24e29aded6ff0a8c3c672
work_keys_str_mv	AT hendrikpjsmit verylownitrogenleachingingrazedleyarablesystemsinnorthwesteurope AT thorstenreinsch verylownitrogenleachingingrazedleyarablesystemsinnorthwesteurope AT christofkluß verylownitrogenleachingingrazedleyarablesystemsinnorthwesteurope AT ralfloges verylownitrogenleachingingrazedleyarablesystemsinnorthwesteurope AT friedhelmtaube verylownitrogenleachingingrazedleyarablesystemsinnorthwesteurope
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Very Low Nitrogen Leaching in Grazed Ley-Arable-Systems in Northwest Europe

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