Abstract
Brazil has the world’s largest cattle herd and is the largest beef exporter, although the degradation of 70% of its pastures cause environmental damage and reduced yields. However, pasture recovery is carried out with expensive mineral fertilizers, whose effects do not last and can cause soil acidification and nutrient loss. Environmentally friendly alternatives are compost and biochar, which can increase nutrient use efficiency through higher soil retention and slower availability, but they lack application recommendations. Therefore, it is necessary to provide helpful information to improve grass yield and replace or reduce the use of mineral fertilizers. For this, a mineral fertilized experiment and another not fertilized were developed to evaluate the dry shoot mass of Marandu palisade grass and some soil chemical attributes after applying compost, biochar, oxidized or not, and their mixtures. Mineral fertilization increased grass productivity, which was further increased when compost, biochar, and mixtures were applied. The combinations more often provided the best results of the variables than the individual application of compost or biochar. In most cases, the best mixture contained 0.25% compost and 0.75% oxidized biochar, but the application of 0.5% of each is promising. This study’s leading information for cattle breeders indicates biochar and compost mixtures that improve soil fertility and grass yield, together with mineral fertilization. However, it is necessary to study biochar oxidation and the enrichment of the compost and biochar with nutrients.
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Acknowledgements
This study was made possible by the Annual Teacher Qualification and Training Plan (PQD) of Universidade Federal Rural do Semiárido (UFERSA) concerning Neyton de Oliveira Miranda. We are grateful to Professor Gualter Guenter Costa da Silva for providing the compost and the late Professor Emerson Moreira de Aguiar for giving access to the Multiuser Laboratory of Animal Nutrition at UFRN.
Funding
This study was supported by research funds from the Agricultural School of Jundiaí, Academic Unit of Agricultural Sciences, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, and the Center for Agrarian Sciences of the Federal University of the Semiarid Region.
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da Silva, I.E., Pimenta, A.S., de Lacerda, C.F. et al. Biochar, compost, and their mixtures influence the dry mass of the shoot of Marandu palisade grass and soil nutritional status. Arab J Geosci 16, 185 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-023-11261-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-023-11261-z