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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Florence, South Carolina » Coastal Plain Soil, Water and Plant Conservation Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #380739
Research Project: Managing Water Availability and Quality for Sustainable Agricultural Production and Conservation of Natural Resources in Humid Regions

Location: Coastal Plain Soil, Water and Plant Conservation Research

Title: Phosphorus runoff from sandy soils under conservation tillage with surface broadcasted recovered phosphates

Author
item Sohoulande, Clement
item Szogi, Ariel
item Stone, Kenneth
item Sigua, Gilbert
item Martin, Jerry
item Shumaker, Paul
item BAUER, PHILIP - Retired ARS Employee

Submitted to: American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/25/2021
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Potential new sources of recycled phosphorus (P) that can be used as fertilizer are the recovered P from livestock wastewater through chemical precipitation and the P in ash from combusting animal manures. Both recovered materials are rich in P but have low solubility in water. Most of the research on P losses from conservation tillage was done with commercial fertilizers that have a high-water soluble P content but little information exists on the use of recycled sources with low-water soluble P. The objective of this study was to investigate the potential P runoff from conservation tillage fertilized with two non-conventional P sources, turkey litter ash and recovered swine manure phosphates, in comparison with commercial triple superphosphate fertilizer. Artificial rains corresponding to the annual 30-minute rainfall in the study site (Florence, South Carolina) were applied to plots treated with the three P fertilizer sources and one control (no P application). The runoff was monitored and water samples taken at different times. Laboratory analyses were conducted to quantify the soluble P in the run-off water from the plots. The results showed that the soluble P collected in the run-off from plots from treated with turkey litter ashes and the recovered swine manure P represented respectively 9.4% and 6.7% of the P collected in the run-off from the plots treated with the high-water soluble triple superphosphate. These results suggest that the use of the turkey litter ashes or recovered P manures as crop P fertilizer through a surface broadcast application could minimize losses of P in the surface run-off from conservation tillage plots. Additional results will be presented on the hydrological aspects of the broadcast application of the turkey litter ashes and recovered swine manure P as fertilizers.