ORGANIC-MATTER AND NITROGEN IN THE UNHARVESTED FRACTIONS OF GRASS SWARDS IN RELATION TO THE POTENTIAL FOR NITRATE LEACHING AFTER PLOWING

The amounts of organic matter in the stubble, litter, root and soil macro-organic matter fractions of two swards of perennial ryegrass that had received normal applications of either fertilizer or cattle urine were, on average for the four fractions, about 3000, 500, 11,500 and 8,800 kg ha-1. The swards had been established 8 or 15 years previously and each was sampled at intervals over a period of about one year. The amounts of N contained in the four fractions were, on average, 68, 12, 249 and 240 kg ha-1, a total of 569 kg N ha-1. With other swards, increasing rates of application of fertilizer N were found to have little effect on the amounts of organic matter in stubble and roots. Concentrations of N in the organic matter of the stubble and roots, however, increased significantly with increasing rate of fertilizer application, though, with stubble, moderate rates of application had little effect. Assessments based on these data, together with other published information, indicate that the amount of N mineralized from the combined stubble, litter, root and macro-organic matter fractions during the first year after ploughing may range from about 40 kg to at least 360 kg N ha-1 depending on the age of the sward and its recent management. The amount mineralized is likely to increase with age of sward, with increasing rate of fertilizer N and with utilisation by grazing rather than cutting. © 1990 Kluwer Academic Publishers.