Skip to main content
ARS Home » Southeast Area » Tifton, Georgia » Southeast Watershed Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #375193
Research Project: Integrating Animal and Industrial Enterprise Byproducts in Gulf Atlantic Coastal Plain Cropping Systems for Enhancing Productivity, Efficiency, and Resiliency of Agroecosystems

Location: Southeast Watershed Research

Title: Worried about Phosphorus from broiler litter? Flue gas desulfurized gypsum to the rescue!

Author
item Endale, Dinku
item Strickland, Timothy
item Pisani, Oliva
item Schomberg, Harry
item Bosch, David
item Coffin, Alisa

Submitted to: ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/1/2020
Publication Date: 11/9/2020
Citation: Endale, D.M., Strickland, T.C., Pisani, O., Schomberg, H.H., Bosch, D.D., Coffin, A.W. 2020. Worried about Phosphorus from broiler litter? Flue gas desulfurized gypsum to the rescue!. ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting Abstracts. 2020 ASA-CSSA-SSSA International Annual Meeting | November | PRELIMINARY.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: The poultry production industry in the US generates a byproduct – manure – that has many agronomic and agro-ecosystem service benefits when used in agriculture. Repeated application, especially targeted at crop N requirement, can lead to undesirable soil and water quality outcomes such as phosphorus (P) and heavy metal accumulation in soil and P loss in runoff. Flue gas desulfurized gypsum (FGDG; CaSO4.2H2O) amendment of soils has the potential to reduce some of these undesirable outcomes. In micro-plots under corn (3.05 m wide by 5.49 m long), we applied high rates (13.45 Mg/ha/year) of broiler litter (BL) and FGDG for three years and lower rates (4.48 Mg/ha/year) for the subsequent three years. Impact on runoff quality were examined from ten treatments arranged in a randomized complete block design with three replications, consisting of inorganic, inorganic + FGDG, BL, and BL+FGDG fertilization. There was either no grass buffer or buffer (3.05 m wide by 6.10 m long) with or without FGDG amendment between plots and runoff collecting and sampling systems. We consistently observed that plots fertilized with BL + FGDG, and having buffers amended with FGDG, showed >50% lower concentration and load of ammonium and nitrate nitrogen, total Kjeldahl nitrogen, and dissolved reactive and total phosphorus compared with plots with no amendment and no buffer.