Feedlot manure top dressing for irrigated pasture: good agricultural practice or a health hazard?
Top dressing a spray-irrigated pasture of orchard-grass with 125 t/ha of overwintered beef feedlot manure almost doubled the yield of dry forage: 6353 kg/ha vs. 3578 kg/ha for the plots receiving no manure. Even at this rate of application, the manure did not contaminate the irrigated grass with enteropathogenic bacteria after irrigation. When the grass became contaminated through the use of fecally polluted irrigation water, the fecal coliforms, indicator organisms with survival characteristics similar to the salmonellae, were effectively eliminated from the grass after exposure to 65 hr of bright sunlight.
D000383:Agriculture; D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle; D005243:Feces / Q000382:microbiology*; D005308:Fertilizers / Q000009:adverse effects*; D009584:Nitrogen; D010758:Phosphorus; D006109:Poaceae; D012988:Soil Microbiology; D013472:Sunlight; D013997:Time Factors
D005308:Fertilizers; D010758:Phosphorus; D009584:Nitrogen