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Title: NIR AND FT-IR ANALYSIS OF FRESH AND DECOMPOSED CATTLE MANURE

Author
item Calderon, Francisco
item Reeves Iii, James

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/22/2004
Publication Date: 4/10/2005
Citation: Calderon, F.J., Reeves III, J.B. 2005. Nir and FT-IR analysis of fresh and decomposed cattle manure. Meeting Abstract. The 12th International Conference on Near Infrared Spectroscopy. April 10-15, 2005. Auckland, New Zealand

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Determining the nitrogen fertilizer value of cattle manure remains an elusive problem due to the heterogeneity of manure N. Near infrared spectroscopy (NIR) and fourier-transformed infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) can potentially be used to quickly and non-destructively determine the quality of manure N. As a first step to ascertain the usefulness of these technologies to measure manure N availability, we carried out a filed experiment to test if these techniques are sensitive to changes in manure during decomposition. Two different cattle manures were incubated for 9 weeks in the field on soils that varied in their carbon content and field position. To allow for the retrieval after decomposition, the manures were placed inside mesh bags before being buried in the soil. Manure samples were obtained at time zero, week 1, week 4, and week 9. The manures were then dried and scanned for FT-IR and NIR analysis. Principal Components analyses show that both the NIR and FT-IR spectra changed during decomposition in soil. NIR spectroscopy was particularly sensitive to changes during the first four weeks of decomposition. Our results suggest that both spectroscopic techniques show promise as possible means to determine the fertilizer value of manure.