Spatial variability of soil nitrogen and phosphorus and assessment of nutrient use in rotation crops following pigs on an outdoor hog-rearing farm in Eastern Ontario

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Developing sustainable alternatives to conventional livestock farming practices is an active area of research. Most conventional livestock farming practices have some form of negative economic, environmental or social impact. Consequently, there is an increased interest in developing livestock farming systems that value animal welfare and optimize the integration of livestock field placement into crop rotation systems. Outdoor swine-rearing operations are commonly associated with high levels of irregularly distributed nitrogen and phosphorus in soil. Understanding of the distribution of these nutrients, both vertically and horizontally within a farm plot, is crucial to making management decisions for crop rotations. Careful selection of crops or forages to be grown after a pig cycle is also important to maximize the use efficiency of nutrients within a crop rotation system. We propose a study to assess the spatial distribution of nitrogen and phosphorus after a year of pigs in a rotational system in a South-eastern Ontario farm. We will concurrently conduct a greenhouse experiment to examine the yield, N and P uptake ability of feed crops and forage mixtures grown in pig-rotation soil, as compared to control soil and commercial fertilizer treatments. Our goals are to (1) maximize the nutrient use efficiency in a rotational system by quantifying the amount and distribution of nitrogen and phosphorus in the soil, and (2) find efficient crops in terms of nutrient update and yield production to grow after a pig rotation, that will reduce potential risk of nutrient losses to the environment, and contribute to farm profitability.