A review of fertilizer, lime and organic manure use on farm crops in Great Britain from 1983 to 1987

Abstract. In 1983, an annual Survey of Fertiliser Practice in England and Wales was extended to Scotland, to provide comprehensive information on inorganic fertilizer, lime and also organic manure use in mainland Britain. It was based on an annual sample of about 1500 farms, selected from the Agricultural Census and stratified by farm type and size. Results from the first fifteen years (1983–97) show that fertilizer nitrogen (N) rates on both tillage crops and grassland peaked at 157 and 132 kg ha^–1, respectively, in the mid 1980s and subsequently decreased by c.10%. The majority of N was applied in straight form (without P or K) to tillage crops and in compound form (containing two or more nutrients e.g. NPK; NK) to grassland. Total N use on cereals showed little change but autumn‐applied N decreased on both winter cereals and winter oilseed rape. Total N rates decreased on oilseed rape and, to a smaller extent, on maincrop potatoes and sugarbeet. Between 1983–87 and 1993–97, mean phosphate (P₂O₅) rates declined by almost 10% on both tillage crops (from 58 to 53 kg ha^–1) and on grassland (from 25 to 23kg ha^–1). The corresponding mean potash (K₂O) rates decreased slightly on both tillage crops (from 64 to 62 kg ha^–1), and on grassland (from 32 to 31 kg ha^–1), although annual usage was more variable on grassland. Sulphur use increased appreciably on cereal and oilseed rape crops between 1993, when S data were first recorded in the survey, and 1997 when 13% and 30%, respectively, of these crop areas received S‐fertilizer. However, on grassland, S use remained very low. Average lime use increased on both tillage crops and grassland between the mid 1980s and mid 1990s, from 10 to 12% and 4 to 7% of the total area, respectively. The proportion of land receiving organic manures remained at c. 16% for tillage cropping but increased slightly for grassland, from a mean of 40% in 1983–87 to 44% in 1993–97. Manures were applied throughout the year but about half the applications to tillage land, and a quarter of those to grassland, were made in autumn when the risk of subsequent nitrate leaching loss is greatest.