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- Title
A new cost-effective method to mitigate ammonia loss from intensive cattle feedlots: application of lignite.
- Authors
Hill, Julian; Chen, Deli; Sun, Jianlei; Bai, Mei; Dassanayake, Kithsiri B.; Denmead, Owen T.
- Abstract
In open beef feedlot systems, more than 50% of dietary nitrogen (N) is lost as ammonia (NH3). Here we report an effective and economically-viable method to mitigate NH3 emissions by the application of lignite. We constructed two cattle pens (20 × 20 m) to determine the effectiveness of lignite in reducing NH3 emissions. Twenty-four steers were fed identical commercial rations in each pen. The treatment pen surface was dressed with 4.5 kg m−2 lignite dry mass while no lignite was applied in the control pen. We measured volatilised NH3 concentrations using Ecotech EC9842 NH3 analysers in conjunction with a mass balance method to calculate NH3 fluxes. Application of lignite decreased NH3 loss from the pen by approximately 66%. The cumulative NH3 losses were 6.26 and 2.13 kg N head−1 in the control and lignite treatment, respectively. In addition to the environmental benefits of reduced NH3 losses, the value of retained N nutrient in the lignite treated manure is more than $37 AUD head−1 yr−1, based on the current fertiliser cost and estimated cost of lignite application. We show that lignite application is a cost-effective method to reduce NH3 loss from cattle feedlots.
- Subjects
FEEDLOTS; AMMONIA; LIGNITE; CATTLE pens; NITROGEN content of manures
- Publication
Scientific Reports, 2015, p16689
- ISSN
2045-2322
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1038/srep16689