Nitrogen fertilizer application rates on cereal crops according to available mineral and organic soil nitrogen

From all plant nutrients N fertilizer rates deserve highest attention as too high rates may result in nitrate leaching, volatilisation of N₂O (greenhouse gas) and affect the farmers’ profit. Too low rates will also depress the profit. The problem is accentuated by the fact that crops not only feed from soil inorganic but also from organic soil N. Most soil N tests do not consider the available organic soil N. The Electro-Ultra-Filtration (EUF) method applied by us takes into account the EUF extractable inorganic and organic soil N for calculating the N fertilizer rate. This method developed at the Liebig University Giessen is called Giessen model (sampling in autumn out of the upper soil layer, 0–30 cm). We compared it with the standard soil N test the “Nmin method” recommended by German officials which method does not consider the available organic soil N (sampling in spring out of three or two soil layers, depending on soil depth). The investigation was carried out on farmers’ fields on five different sites with winter cereals (wheat, barley) in 1989/1990, 1990/1991 and 1991/1992. Recommended fertilizer application rates differed somewhat for both methods. Of the 23 cases, significantly higher grain yields were obtained five times by Nmin and four times by EUF; otherwise grain yields did not differ significantly between both methods. Grain yield and crude protein concentration were increased by fertilizer N compared with the plots without N fertilizer. On the site Giessen, however, there were some cases in which the N fertilizer did not increase grain yield. The soil of the Giessen site was rich in interlayer NH₄⁺ which is not recovered by the EUF and Nmin method, but which obviously contributed to the N supply of the crop, and therefore the N rates were too high. Grain crude protein concentration were higher with Nmin for Wernborn and Bruchkobel sites because of higher N fertilizer rates. For the Giessen site in 1989/1990 the reverse was true. Nitrogen agronomic efficiency (AE) ranged from 0 to 35.6. Apparent N recovery (ANR) ranged from 0 to 111. The gross profit differed from −88 to 489 Euro/ha. Negative values (three cases out of 23) were found on the Giessen site where no yield increase was obtained by the N fertilizer because of interlayer NH₄⁺. This interpretation is supported by the finding that interlayer NH₄⁺ significantly decreased from autumn to spring. Apart from the results found in 1 year on the Giessen site, the gross profit calculation showed that a precise N fertilizer application based on soil analysis yields a high profitability of cereal production.