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ARS Home » Southeast Area » New Orleans, Louisiana » Southern Regional Research Center » Commodity Utilization Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #285927
Title: Mineral composition of cottonseed is affected by fertilization management practices

Author
item He, Zhongqi
item SHANKLE, MARK - Mississippi State University
item ZHANG, HAILIN - Oklahoma State University
item Way, Thomas - Tom
item Tewolde, Haile
item Uchimiya, Sophie

Submitted to: Agronomy Journal
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/21/2012
Publication Date: 3/1/2013
Citation: He, Z., Shankle, M., Zhang, H., Way, T.R., Tewolde, H., Uchimiya, M. 2013. Mineral composition of cottonseed is affected by fertilization management practices. Agronomy Journal. 105(2):341-350.

Interpretive Summary: Whole cottonseed and its products can be used as human food, animal feed, and industrial raw material. Chemical composition is one of the critical parameters to evaluate cottonseed's quality and potential end use. Therefore, from a Falkner silt loam soil in northeastern Mississippi, we collected the cottonseed samples in two successive years from cotton fertilized with poultry litter (PL) and chemical fertilizer (CIF) with or without cover crop, and determined the ash and 16 elemental (Al, As, B, Ca, Cd, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na, Ni, P, Pb, S, and Zn) contents of these samples. The fertilization type (CIF vs. PL) showed outstanding but not necessarily same impacts on the contents of six elements (Ca, Fe, Mn, P, Cu and Mg) and ash. Fertilization decreased Ca, but increased Fe and Mn contents. The CIF fertilization decreased, but PL fertilization increased P, Mg, Cu, and ash contents. Correlation coefficient analysis suggested that P, Mg, and K contributed to the increase of ash content, probably in the form of the mixture of K/Mg phytate compounds. These observations demonstrate the mineral profiles of cottonseed differentially affected by chemical inorganic fertilizer and PL fertilization.

Technical Abstract: Whole cottonseed and its products can be used as human food, animal feed, and industrial raw material. Chemical composition is one of the critical parameters to evaluate cottonseed's quality and potential end use. Whereas there are reports on the improvement of cotton lint yield by poultry litter (PL) fertilization, there are no data about the impacted of PL application on mineral composition of cottonseed. In this study, we determined the contents of 16 elements (Al, As, B, Ca, Cd, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na, Ni, P, Pb, S, and Zn) and ash in cottonseed grown under different fertilization managements with or without wheat cover crop for two years. Cover crop did not significantly impact the chemical composition of cottonseed. Compared to no fertilizer control, both chemical inorganic fertilizer (CIF) and PL altered the levels of Ca, Mg, Cu, Fe, Mg, Mn, P (possibly Na and K), and ash content but not Zn, Ni, Cd, Pb, Al, S, B and As. The impact of subsurface band vs. broadcast application methods or fall vs. spring application timing on mineral composition was not obvious. Cottonseed K, Mg, and P contents were higher with PL fertilization but lower with CIF than those of the control cottonseed (no fertilizer). The data of the three elements were highly correlated (alpha<0.01), indicating the three elements were co-accumulated in cottonseed, probably in the form of K/Mg phytate.