Impact of the fields, fertilized with manure from big livestock companies on drainage water quality

Abstract

The paper presents data on the water quality in drainage from manure-fertilized areas in a large livestock company (629 conditional livestock) from 2008 to 2012. The scheme of investigation consists of two field variants: manure- fertilized and non-fertilized. Researches are carried out in drained areas, where the drainage water is drained away through outlets. The nitrogen rate 170 kg ha 1 is used annually to fertilize fields in spring. The aim of the research was to ascertain the impact of large livestock company fields fertilized annually with manure on the water quality in drainage. For the purpose of chemical investigations, water samples from drainage were taken once per month. Water analyses were carried out by the accredited Chemical Analytical Laboratory of the Water Management Engineering Institute of Aleksandras Stulginskis University according to specified methods. Investigation results have demonstrated that fields fertilized annually with manure raised the contents of Nmin and P205 in the soil by 1.5 and 2.2 times respectively in comparison to the non-fertilized ones. The increase in these contents was conditioned by the higher air temperature and the lower rainfall. The seasonality of N , concentrations in drainage water was discovered: higher concentrations were identified in autumn and winter, lower concentrations - in spring and summer. Due to low dissolubility in the soil, low P concentrations were identified in drainage water. The highest concentrations were identified with the start of drainage operation.