THE VOLATILIZATION OF N-NH3 IN CATTLE DUNG DURING 3 MONTHS - TECHNICAL NOTE

Daily ammonia volatilization from 8 cattle dung patches placed on a gr assland in January, March and July was measured. Volatilized ammonia d istribution was adjusted to the Gaussian function with values of R-2 ( P < 0.01) of 0.89, 0.88 and 0.89 for the first, second and third exper iment, respectively In all cases volatilized ammonia was low for the f irst two day; (less than 1 kg/ha/day) but gradually increased with 4 k g/ha/day at 8-10 days in the second experiment and 2 kg/ha/day at 8 da ys in the first and third experiments. A small amount of ammonia was f ound in the three experiments at 23 day. Ammonia volatilized from catt le dung patches represented 25, 4.1 and 25% of the total N applied in the first, second and third experiment, respectively. The effect of ra in and temperature on results is disccussed. Long term studies on inte nsive grazing conditions to determine the potential value of ammonia v olatilized from cattle dung patches are necessary and thus, N balance in the soil-pasture-animal system would be better known.