Browsing by Author "Chen, Lin"

Meat bone meal (MBM) contains considerable amount of nutrients (~8% N, ~5% P and ~10 Ca). So it can be a potential organic fertilizer for different crops. Traditionally, the production of mineral N and P fertilizers is unsustainable due to the reliance on fossil fuels in case on N, and limited mineral resource stocks in case of P. Using complementary fertilizers which originate from organic waste materials is gaining interest. On the other hand, organic farms are usually lacking nutrient sources if animals are not kept on farm at the same time. Whether MBM can achieve similar crop yield and quality as the mineral fertilizer was studied. To quantify and qualify MBM use as an N and P fertilizer, two field experiments were done on spring barley and oat in 2000 and 2001. MBM and two types fur animal manure based fertilizers (FAMB and FAMBCF) were compared to mineral fertilizer PellonY3 in three N levels: 60, 90 and 120 kg/ha. MBM and FAMBCF gave the same grain yield as PY3. There was no additional yield increase by increasing N rate from 90 to 120 kg/ha. Four aspects of grain quality, namely 1000grain weigh, test weigh, protein content and protein yield were tested. MBM, FAMBCF and PY3 tended to have similar effect while FAMB had lower effect. Since MBM has a low N/P ratio, when it is applied to meet crop's N demand, P will be at surplus. So using crop rotation and green manure for organic farm and only applying N fertilizer for conventional farm after using MBM is recommended. Adding K in MBM is also necessary when there is a lack of K in soil since MBM had only ~1% K.