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The impacts of nitrogen fertilisation and increased stocking rate on pasture yield, soil physical condition and nutrient losses in drainage from a cattle‐grazed pasture

Abstract The effects of increasing nitrogen (N) fertiliser inputs, and associated cattle stocking rates, on pasture yield and composition, soil physical quality and nutrient losses in drainage were measured in an experiment on permanent white clover/ryegrass pastures in eastern Southland, New Zealand. Treatments were established on hydrologically‐isolated replicate plots (900 m2) where pastures received annual fertiliser N inputs of 0, 100, 200 or 400 kg ha–1 and were grazed throughout spring, summer, and autumn of each year by non‐lactating dairy cattle. Our aim was to determine if N fertilisation of cattle pastures led to the deterioration of pasture or soil quality, or to the excessive loss of nutrients in drainage over the 3–4 years after such land management started. Pasture and soil monitoring showed that N fertilisation and increased stocking rate resulted in large, but variable, increases in pasture yield, with little discernible effect on soil physical condition, as evidenced by twice‐yearly measurements of soil bulk density, percentage of soil pores >300 μm, soil macroporosity (volumetric percentage of pores >30 μm), hydraulic conductivity, and air permeability. A cyclical pattern of spring soil compaction followed by recovery over summer, autumn, and winter was evident in the 0–5 cm soil layer within all treatments. Mean annual pasture responses to applied fertiliser N were 14.8, 12.9, and 9.1 kg DM kg–1 N applied in the 100, 200, and 400 N treatments, respectively, with greater responses observed in spring than in autumn in 3 out of 4 years. N fertilisation significantly increased losses of nitrate‐N and Ca in drainage but had no significant effect on K, Mg, Na, sulphate‐S, Cl, and P drainage losses. Within the context of the potential for enriching groundwater supplies of domestic drinking water, these losses suggest that annual fertiliser N inputs should not exceed approx. 170 kg N ha–1 yr–1 at this site. Considered from the perspective of potential surface water enrichment with P and N promoting nuisance weed and algal growth, losses of N and P in drainage water exceeded currently accepted guidelines, especially for N. The responses measured in this study represent a system that has recently undergone an improvement in soil fertility along with a change from sheep to cattle grazing. We thus caution that our findings pertain to short‐term changes in soil and plant responses and may not accurately reflect those in a system that has been in long‐term (>20 years) equilibrium.