Across eastern Canada and the northeastern U.S., more
than 5 million acres of land produces mixed hay. The lost
opportunities arising from under-fertilizing this crop could
be in the neighborhood of $300 million. The objective of
this project is to investigate the influence of N, P and K
fertilization on forage yield, persistence and quality. In
particular, this study will compare manure and commercial
sources of nutrients.
In past years, hay yields have responded to both sources
of nutrients. Results from 1999 continue trends identified
in previous years. Applications of manure to supply the
recommended amount of N produced a hay yield of 3.6
tons/A, in comparison to 3.9 tons/A with equivalent rates
of N, P and K as commercial fertilizer. Using manure
results in slightly lower yields in about one-half of
harvests, mostly due to unpredictable losses of N with
surface application. When N alone is applied, the botanical
composition appears to shift toward a single low-productivity
species (bluegrass) while the manured and NPK
treatments maintain a desirable mixture of several grass
species and clover.
These results should encourage forage producers to use
both sources of nutrients to increase yields from the
current average of 1.95 tons/A. Continued study in 2000
will measure more precisely the shift in species composition.