Response of silage maize to placement of cattle slurry

Abstract

In field trials in 1993-94 on sandy soils at 2 sites in the Netherlands, cattle slurry was applied by injection into slots 25 cm apart (standard injection) or 75 cm apart (banded injection). Subsequently, maize cv. Melody or Mandigo was sown at a row spacing of 75 cm parallel to the slots, either at random lateral positions in the standard injection treatment or 10 cm from the injection slots of the banded injection treatment. All treatments, including a control without slurry, were combined with 0 or 20-31 kg/ha of subsurface banded P starter fertilizer. Dry matter yields of silage maize were on average reduced by 8% when standard injection of slurry was not supplemented with P. However, the yield reduction was only 2% when slurry was banded.