Improved analysis of solid
manures and slurries
The nutrient content of solid manures and slurries can vary considerably from
the typical values presented in Defra?s Fertiliser Manual (RB209), published in
2010. Given this variability and the increasing cost of manufactured fertiliser it
is worthwhile analysing nutrient content of solid manures and slurries.
Improved analysis
Over the past three years five AHDB divisions have collaborated ? HGCA, DairyCo, Potato Council, EBLEX and BPEX ? to co-fund a Defra LINK project to test the use of Near Infra-red Reflectance Spectrometry (NIRS) to analyse the nutrient content of manure (slurries and biosolids).
The project was very successful and has shown that NIRS can provide rapid and reliable
analysis of:
dry matter*
total-N (Figure 1)
readily available N (can be taken up immediately by the crop)
phosphate (P2O5)
potash (K2O)
sulphur (as SO3)
magnesium (as MgO)
*Dry matter content of slurry samples must be greater than 2%.
Eurofins, a project partner, currently holds the licence to use the project data to provide a commercial service; to use NIRS to analyses the nutrient content of manures. Eurofins have costed the service at £23 +VAT, roughly half the cost of the traditional wet chemistry method