No-till Corn Response to Subsurface Application of Poultry Litter.

Nitrogen fertilizer management is vital to no-till corn (Zea mays) production from financial and environmental perspectives.  Poultry litter as a nutrient source in this cropping system is generally land applied by surface broadcast, potentially causing volatilization of ammonia (NH₃)-N.  Recently a new application method was developed that allows subsurface banding of poultry litter with minimal soil surface disturbance.  However there is limited data with this application method on no-till corn production.  In this study we used large scale no-till corn plots (7.6 m x 91.2 m) to evaluate the response of corn growth from subsurface poultry litter application.  All treatments were applied pre-plant at a rate of 168 kg N ha^-1 and included (i) a standard commercial fertilizer surface broadcast, (ii) poultry litter surface broadcast, and (iii) poultry litter applied in subsurface bands placed 30 cm apart and 8 cm deep.  The experiment was conducted for 2 years on a Wheeling (fine-loamy, mixed, active, mesic Ultic Hapludalfs) soil near Owensboro, KY, and results show that poultry litter subsurface banded plots resulted in corn grain and above ground biomass yields similar to plots treated with standard commercial fertilizer.  Corn grain yield from poultry litter amended plots increased from 9.47 Mg ha^-1 when surface broadcast to 10.31 Mg ha^-1 when subsurface banded.  Results from this study suggest that subsurface banding of poultry litter can be utilized as an alternate application method in a no-till corn system without detrimental impacts on corn productivity.