Injecting manure into growing cover crops can cut pollution, support corn crops
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Nitrogen in the soil, where plants can readily utilize it, benefits crop growth and health. However, nitrogen leaving the soil—whether through leaching into the groundwater table, flowing with surface runoff into streams or escaping into the air as ammonia or in nitrous oxide emissions—is detrimental to the environment.
Nitrogen management is a concern for dairy farmers, especially those in Pennsylvania and elsewhere in the U.S. Northeast who use manure as a fertilizer and employ no-till agriculture for improved soil health, lower fuel and labor costs, less dust and erosion, and better water conservation.
To better guide these farmers, a team of Penn State agricultural scientists conducted a new study on dairy manure management strategies for ecosystem services in no-till crop systems. In findings recently published in the Agronomy Journal, they report a new strategy that achieves multiple conservation goals while maintaining corn yield: injecting manure into a growing cover crop in early spring.
