Ammonia volatilization from cattle slurry following surface application to grassland I. Influence of mechanical separation, changes in chemical composition during volatilization and the presence of the grass sward

TLDR: In this article, the influence of slurry application rate, wind speed and applying slurry in narrow bands on ammonia volatilization from cattle slurry surface-applied to grassland was examined.

Abstract: Three experiments were conducted to examine the influence of slurry application rate, wind speed and applying slurry in narrow bands on ammonia (NH3) volatilization from cattle slurry surface-applied to grassland. The experiments were conducted in the field using a system of small wind tunnels to measure NH3 loss. There was an inverse relationship between slurry application rate and the proportion of NH4 +-N volatilized. From slurry applied at 20, 40, 60, 80, 100 and 120 m3 ha-1, the respective proportions of NH4 +-N lost by NH3 volatization in 6 days were 60, 56, 49, 40, 44 and 44%. The negative relationship was most pronounced in the first 24 hours after application when 57–77% of the total loss for 6 days occurred. Wind speed had a positive effect on NH3 volatilization, although the effect was small in relation to the total loss; increasing the wind speed from 0.5 to 3.0 m s-1 increased the total 5 day loss by a factor of 0.29. The effect of wind speed was also most pronounced in the first 24 hours when much of the NH3 loss took place. The effect of reducing the surface area of the applied slurry was examined by comparing NH3 volatilization from slurry broadcast across plots with that applied in narrow bands. Although the rate of NH3 volatilization was considerably smaller from the banded application immediately after the slurry was applied, the difference between the treatments progressively narrowed until 2 days after application, after which a higher rate was maintained from the banded slurry. After 5 days the total loss from the banded application was 83% of that from broadcast slurry.