Soil Nutrient Accumulation Removal While Keeping Corn Production Stable.

Broiler litter is often disposed of on lands at rates in excess of field crop needs.  This often results in an accumulation of some nutrients, such as P, Cu or Zn.  A remediation study was used to determine if adding only the inorganic nutrients required, after broiler litter application would reduce excess soil nutrients left from the poultry litter.  The crop was corn for grain and had four treatments using four different rates of inorganic fertilizer addition.  Remediation treatments where previous broiler litter was applied at the N rate (R-PLN), P rate (R-PLP) P rate with inorganic N (R-PLP+N), and inorganic fertilizer (INORG). Initial results indicate that by using inorganic fertilizer application as a remediation, soils can be reduced in P, Cu and Zn levels.   Indications are that removal of these nutrients may require in excess of five years, but will allow for excellent crop production during the remediation process.