Die Bodenkultur - Journal for Land Management, Food and Environment

R. Hösl, P. Strauss, E. Murer, A. Eder, T. Bauer and A. Bohner:

Effect of near ground slurry application techniques
on phosphorus losses into tile drains

Summary

Four different slurry application techniques (drag shoe = SH, drag hose = SC, chisel injector = D and deflector plate = PT) and one control plot (N = zero slurry) were tested on grassland within the catchment of lake Waging-Taching in order to investigate phosphorus losses into tile drains. Slurry (20 m³.ha-1) was applied onto the grassland directly above tile drains. Then rainfall simulations were carried out, discharge from the tile drains was collected and analysed for phosphorus concentration (total P) and sediment concentration. The relation between sediment concentration and P concentration was almost linear for all tested slurry application techniques and P concentrations did not vary significantly within the tested variants (p > 0.05). However by pooling the near ground application techniques (SC, SH and D) a significant difference compared to PT could be shown (p = 0.03). Key words: near ground slurry application, deflector plate, phosphorus, rainfall simulation, grassland experiments.