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Nitrogen fertilizer being applied to growing corn in a contoured, no-tilled field in Iowa.. Nutrient management is the science and practice directed to link soil, crop, weather, and hydrologic factors with cultural, irrigation, and soil and water conservation practices to achieve optimal nutrient use efficiency, crop yields, crop quality, and economic returns, while reducing off-site transport ...
No-till farming is not equivalent to conservation tillage or strip tillage. Conservation tillage is a group of practices that reduce the amount of tillage needed. No-till and strip tillage are both forms of conservation tillage. No-till is the practice of never tilling a field. Tilling every other year is called rotational tillage.
Model outputs include daily fluxes of various N-gas species (e.g., N 2 O, NO x, N 2); daily CO 2 flux from heterotrophic soil respiration; soil organic C and N; net primary productivity; daily water and nitrate (NO 3) leaching, and other ecosystem parameters. Daycent has been tested using data from various native and managed systems.
In agriculture, leaching is the loss of water-soluble plant nutrients from the soil, due to rain and irrigation. Soil structure , crop planting, type and application rates of fertilizers , and other factors are taken into account to avoid excessive nutrient loss.
Nitrogen leaching occurs when nitrogen compounds, primarily nitrates, move through the soil profile and enter groundwater, potentially contaminating drinking water sources. [2] To mitigate these environmental impacts, various nitrogen management strategies are employed in agriculture.
The result is less labor and lower costs that increase farmers’ profits. No-till farming and cover crops act as sinks for nitrogen and other nutrients. This increases the amount of soil organic matter. [8] Repeated plowing/tilling degrades soil, killing its beneficial fungi and earthworms.
The impact of residue placement (buried by tillage or left on the surface in zero tillage) on nutrient cycling and efficiency is under study. [ citation needed ] Thus, the practice of calculating the fertilizer equivalent value of the nutrients in crop residue is a reasonable guide to estimating the partial value of crop residues.
A European meta-analysis found that organic farms tended to have higher soil organic matter content and lower nutrient losses (nitrogen leaching, nitrous oxide emissions, and ammonia emissions) per unit of field area but higher ammonia emissions, nitrogen leaching and nitrous oxide emissions per product unit. [69]