Nutrient cycling in organic farms: stall balance of a suckler cow herd and beef bulls |
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Authors: | G. Haas B. Caspari U. Köpke |
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Affiliation: | (1) Institute of Organic Agriculture, University of Bonn, Katzenburgweg 3, D-53115 Bonn, Germany |
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Abstract: | In organic agriculture, the internal farm nutrient cycle must bequantified to ensure high system productivity accompanied by environmentallysound production processes. In contrast to common farm-gate and field balances,budgeting at the stall level is seldom undertaken. When budgeting mixed farmingsystems, a substantial lack of nutrients can be detected in the forageand straw input – stall – manure output nutrient flow chain.Therefore, stall balances focus on a central component of whole-farm nutrientbudgets for developing efficient nutrient management strategies. At theexperimental farm for organic agriculture at Wiesengut in Hennef, Germany, allsolid mass flows for a suckler herd and a herd of beef bulls were measured.Relative balance values obtained for dry matter and C (45 to 56%), N (16to 36%), P (–7 to 22.5%), K (0 to 13%) and ash(–4 to 7%) varied over a wide range. Balances are very sensitive tovariations in mass flow and nutrient content for components with high nutrientcontents and/or a large contribution to total mass flow (e.g. manure, silage).In developing strategies to minimise N losses, by reducing N surplus in theration, one must consider, that, in contrast to dairy farms, a suckler herd forbeef production integrated in an organic farm has to adapt to crop productiondemands. |
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Keywords: | Balance Budget Cycling Nutrient Nutrient management Organic agriculture Stall balance Suckler cow Beef bull |
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