Nitrogen Losses in Soil During Wet Weather

Wet weather has caused many farm managers to worry about nitrogen losses in their fields, especially in fields
Share
Favorite
Close

No account yet? Register

ADVERTISEMENT

The steady flow of wet weather in April has caused many farm managers to worry about nitrogen losses in their fields, especially those where they applied nitrogen prior to the rains. Fortunately, nitrogen losses might not be as bad as many producers expect, said Lloyd Murdock, PhD, extension soils specialist with the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture.

"Producers always expect high nitrogen losses during extremely wet conditions," Murdock said. "In most cases, they aren’t going to have the losses that they anticipated. Not knowing this could cause them to spend an excessive amount of money on additional fertilizers."

Producers who farm areas that flood annually, such as along the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, typically haven’t applied nitrogen yet. Those who farm along creeks and secondary rivers, however, might have already applied nitrogen. These smaller tributaries could be submerged for some time due to recent major flooding of the larger rivers.

The main cause of nitrogen loss in wet soils is denitrification. This occurs when bacteria convert the nitrate nitrogen in the soil into nitrogen gas. Denitrification is triggered when the soil remains saturated for two to three days. Thus, poorly drained, low-lying areas are the most susceptible. During denitrification an average of 3 to 4% of nitrate nitrogen is lost per day for each day of saturation

Create a free account with TheHorse.com to view this content.

TheHorse.com is home to thousands of free articles about horse health care. In order to access some of our exclusive free content, you must be signed into TheHorse.com.

Start your free account today!

Already have an account?
and continue reading.

Share

Written by:

Related Articles

Stay on top of the most recent Horse Health news with

FREE weekly newsletters from TheHorse.com

Sponsored Content

Weekly Poll

sponsored by:

Where do you primarily feed your horse?
276 votes · 276 answers

Readers’ Most Popular

Sign In

Don’t have an account? Register for a FREE account here.

Need to update your account?

You need to be logged in to fill out this form

Create a free account with TheHorse.com!