Nitrogen loss and use efficiency of one-time basal application of cattle manure in autumn to a winter wheat–summer maize cropping system on the North China Plain

Cattle manure was applied to a winter wheatsummer maize cropping system on the North China Plain in autumn as a single basal application (MOAA). In order to provide parameters for evaluation of environmental effects of MOAA, experiments employing no fertilizer application and split application of ammonium sulfate (SAAS) and MOAA as N 300 kg/ha were carried out in Ji County, Tianjin City; as N 300 and 450 kg/ha and was also adopted 15N tracer technology in Ling County, Shandong province, to study nitrogen (N) utilization and 15N loss. In the winter wheatsummer maize cropping system, 3038% of the total manure 15N was lost, which did not differ significantly from SAAS 15N loss. Manure N loss was N 89 kg/ha following N 300 kg/ha manure N application, and N loss sharply increased by 90% when manure N application increased by 50%. After winter wheat harvest, the amount of soil NO3-N at 080 cm depths in MOAA was N 3895 kg/ha, and decreased to N 1828 kg/ha after summer maize harvest; in both instances, the values were lower than those of SAAS. In farmland with long-term application of manure, there were no significant differences in winter wheat and summer maize grain yields between MOAA and SAAS. From an environmental point of view, it is concluded that MOAA is an appropriate application but the amount of N should not exceed N 300 kg/ha.