Modelling nitrogen cycles of farming systems as basis of site- and farm-specific nitrogen management

Abstract The paper describes a model designed for analysing interrelated nitrogen (N) fluxes in farming systems. It combines the partial N balance, farm gate balance, barn balance and soil surface balance, in order to analyse all relevant N fluxes between the subsystems soil–plant–animal–environment and to reflect conclusive and consistent management systems. Such a system approach allows identifying the causes of varying N surplus and N utilisation. The REPRO model has been applied in the experimental farm Scheyern in southern Germany, which had been subdivided into an organic (org) and a conventional (con) farming system in 1992. Detailed series of long-term measuring data are available for the experimental farm, which have been used for evaluating the software for its efficiency and applicability under very different management, yet nearly equal site conditions. The organic farm is multi-structured with a legume-based crop rotation (N2 fixation: 83 kg ha−1 yr−1). The livestock density is 1.4 LSU ha−1. The farm is oriented on closed mass cycles. The conventional farm is a simple-structured cash crop system based on mineral N (N input 145 kg ha−1 yr−1). Averaging the years 1999–2002, the organic crop rotation reached, with regard to the harvested products, about 81% (6.9 Mg ha−1 yr−1) of the DM yield and about 93% (140 kg ha−1 yr−1) of the N removal of the conventional rotation. Related to the cropped area, the N surplus calculated for the organic rotation was 38 kg ha−1 yr−1 versus 44 kg ha−1 yr−1 for the conventional rotation. The N utilisation reached 0.77 (org) and 0.79 (con), respectively. The different structure of the farms favoured an enhancement of the soil organic nitrogen stock (35 kg ha−1 yr−1) in the organic crop rotation and caused a decline in the conventional system (−24 kg ha−1 yr−1). Taking account of these changes, which were substantiated by measurements, N surplus in the organic rotation decreased to 3 kg ha−1 yr−1, while it increased to 68 kg ha−1 yr−1 in the conventional system. The adjusted N utilisation value amounted to 0.98 (org) and 0.69 (con), respectively.

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