Nitrogen leaching from soil lysimeters irrigated with dairy shed effluent and having managed drainage

The leaching of nitrogen (N) from agricultural soils is undesirable for environmental and health reasons. We investigated the effects of adding dairy shed effluent (DSE), irrigated on a weekly basis during the milking season, on the amounts and forms of N leached from large undisturbed soil monolith lysimeters of a Gley Soil over a period of 2 years. Drainage was managed using a weir that maintained the water table at 3 depths: 25 (high), 50 (medium), or 75 (low) cm below the soil surface. The low water table treatment represented the usual situation for the soil when drained. If undrained, it would be usual during wet periods in the field for a perched water table to form on the slowly permeable horizon at 75 cm depth. The total amount of N irrigated onto the lysimeters in the first milking season was equivalent to a total of 511 kg N/ha.year, and up to 33.3 kg N/ha.year leached from the soil. The losses from lysimeters receiving effluent were nearly double those from lysimeters receiving an equivalent amount of water only, when the high and medium water tables were imposed. Adding effluent caused only a small increase (7 kg N/ha) in total N leached in the low drainage treatment. In the second milking season, the effluent-N loading was increased to 1518 kg N/ha.year and the pasture was managed to simulate a 'cut and carry' land treatment system. Under these conditions, up to 131.4 kg N/ha.year leached from the soil, which was nearly 100 kg N/ha more than lysimeters receiving only water. The total N leaching losses represented a similar proportion of added N (7% and 9%) for years 1 and 2, respectively. Most of the leached N (80-90%) was in organic N form. The managed drainage treatment in which the water table was nearest the soil surface resulted in less N being leached in the nitrate-N (NO3-N) form (< 2.5 kg N/ha.year) than the other drainage treatments (6-12 kg N/ha.year); however, it did result in the greatest amount of organic and total N leached (33 and 131 kg N/ha for Year 1 and 2, respectively). The smaller amount of NO3-N leached from the high water table treatment is attributed to enhanced denitrification, and the greater amount of organic N is attributed to preferential flow. Although NO3-N concentrations in leachate generally remained below World Health Organisation (WHO) standards in all treatments, the large amount of N leached in organic form would suggest that inorganic N should not be the only form of N considered when measuring N leaching losses.