Abstract
As fertilizer prices have been rising dramatically in the last few years, farmers have been interested in utilizing nitrogen management products to help minimize losses and ultimately reduce purchased fertilizer costs. There are three main types of nitrogen stabilizing products, urease inhibitors, nitrification inhibitors, and controlled release products. Urease inhibitors (i.e., ContaiN®, ANVOL® and Limus®) slow the transformation of urea into ammonium to avoid ammonia volatilization. Research has shown as much as 50% of fertilizer N can be lost to ammonia volatilization if conditions are right. Nitrification inhibitors (InstinctTM, and N-Serve®) reduce the populations of the bacteria responsible for converting ammonium to nitrate, thereby keeping nitrogen in the ammonium form and avoiding losses to nitrous oxide or leaching. Controlled release products are coated with a physical or chemical barrier that temporarily isolates the fertilizer from the environment to slow its degradation. Approximately 50% of the nitrogen in liquid dairy manure is in the ammonium form and is subject to losses from volatilization when surface applied to hay fields. In 2023, UVM Extension initiated a replicated field trial to investigate the use of a urease inhibitor applied with liquid manure to hayfields. This report summarizes the results of those trials.
Publication Date
1-2024
Recommended Citation
Darby, Heather and Ziegler, Sara, "Manure and Urease Inhibitors Impacts on Grass Yield and Quality" (2024). Northwest Crops & Soils Program. 543.
https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/nwcsp/543