Economic and environmental impacts of pasture nutrient management
Issue Date
2003-05-01Keywords
farm sizedairy cows
soil nutrient balance
nutrient management
dairy farm management
agricultural runoff
pollution control
simulation models
costs and returns
production costs
fertilizer application
stocking rate
nitrogen
phosphorus
application rates
Texas
grazing
stocking density
manure
nutrient losses
nitrogen
phosphorus
economics
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Osei, E., Gassman, P. W., Hauck, L. M., Neitsch, S., Jones, R. D., McNitt, J., & Jones, H. (2003). Economic and environmental impacts of pasture nutrient management. Journal of Range Management, 56(3), 218-226.Publisher
Society for Range ManagementJournal
Journal of Range ManagementAdditional Links
https://rangelands.org/Abstract
Highly intensive stocking of dairy cattle on continuously grazed pasture coupled with liberal applications of commercial fertilizer can lead to increased losses of agricultural nutrients, which is a concern for water quality of receiving lakes and surface water resources. Integrated economic-environmental model simulations performed for the Lake Fork Reservoir Watershed in northeast Texas indicate that appropriate pasture nutrient management including stocking density adjustments and more efficient commercial fertilizer use could lead to significant reductions in nutrient losses. Soluble and organic P losses were predicted to decline by 54 and 13% relative to baseline conditions when manure P was assumed totally plant available (Low P scenario). The soluble and organic P loss reductions declined to 33 and 7% when only inorganic P was assumed plant available (High P scenario). Simulation of an N-based manure management plan resulted in the smallest predicted soluble and organic P loss reductions of 18 and 3%. Nitrogen loss predictions ranged from a 7% decline to a 1% increase for the 3 scenarios as compared to the baseline. The High P and Low P scenarios resulted in estimated aggregate profit reductions of 6 and 18% relative to the baseline. These profit declines occurred because the dairies had to acquire additional pasture land to accommodate the expanded area required for the P-based scenarios. In contrast, the N-based stocking density and nutrient management scenario resulted in an aggregate profit increase of 3% across all dairies. Variations in economic impacts were also predicted across farm sizes.Type
textArticle
Language
enISSN
0022-409Xae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.2307/4003810