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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.
Sec. Waste Management in Agroecosystems
Volume 8 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2024.1433129

Nitrogen use efficiencies, flows and losses of typical dairy farming systems in Inner Mongolia

Provisionally accepted
Moge Qili Moge Qili 1,2Zhanqing Zhao Zhanqing Zhao 3*Junwei Bao Junwei Bao 2Nier Wu Nier Wu 2Baomin Guo Baomin Guo 2Ying Ying Ying Ying 2Batu Bilige Batu Bilige 2Lin Sun Lin Sun 2Yanlin Xue Yanlin Xue 2Fuyu Yang Fuyu Yang 1
  • 1 College of Grassland Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
  • 2 Inner Mongolia Academy of Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Sciences, Hohhot, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China
  • 3 School of Land Science and Space Planning, Hebei GEO University, Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Dairy farming is a notable source of nitrogen (N) emissions, impacting both atmospheric and aquatic ecosystems, thus necessitating a detailed analysis of nutrient dynamics to curtail nutrient wastage. However, N flow variability and its environmental ramifications differ markedly among dairy farms, and a holistic understanding of these differences is lacking in Inner Mongolia, the biggest dairy production province in China. Utilizing data from 187 dairy farms and employing the NUFER-farm model, this study assessed N flows, N use efficiency (NUE), and N losses across four predominant dairy farming systems in Inner Mongolia. These systems include traditional pastoral dairy farms (PF), smallholder dairy farms with croplands (SF), industrial landless farms (IDF), and coupled dairy cattle and cropland intensive farms (CDF). Our findings indicate considerable differences in N flows, NUE, and losses among the systems. On average, N deposition and N fertilizer were the primary N sources for PF and SF, respectively, whereas IDF and CDF derived over 90% of their N inputs from purchased feeds.PF and SF recycled all available manure N on-farm, whereas IDF and CDF recycled only about 36% of the total available manure N. N losses constituted 39%-72% of total N outputs, with ammonia emissions accounting for 68%-73% of total N losses across all farm types. Notably, PF had a higher N loss per kilogram of dairy product compared to other systems. Farm-level NUE ranged from 17% to 35%, with manure management practices showing significant variability, underscoring the potential for enhanced strategies to reduce N losses through improved manure treatment.

    Keywords: dairy farm, nitrogen use efficiency, Nitrogen flows, nitrogen losses, nitrogen management

    Received: 21 Jun 2024; Accepted: 03 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Qili, Zhao, Bao, Wu, Guo, Ying, Bilige, Sun, Xue and Yang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Zhanqing Zhao, School of Land Science and Space Planning, Hebei GEO University, Shijiazhuang, 050031, Hebei Province, China

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