Systems that source nitrogen from manure have an added challenge to achieve greater nitrogen-use efficiency. In the University of Wisconsin-Discovery Farms Nitrogen-Use Efficiency Project, 44 percent of corn-grain fields and 80 percent of silage fields sourced nitrogen from manure, differentiating the research by UW-Discovery Farms from research that considers fertilizer as the sole nitrogen source. When comparing the dataset of manured fields to non-manured fields, a greater percentage of manured fields had nitrogen-use efficiency values less than the average compared to those that didn’t apply any manure.
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Abby Augarten
Abby Augarten is a nitrogen-use efficiency project coordinator for the University of Wisconsin-Discovery Farms. Email abigail.augarten@wisc.edu to reach her.
