Sustainable nutrient management at field, farm and regional level: Soil testing, nutrient budgets and the trade-off between lime application and greenhouse gas emissions

Pollution from agriculture has environmental consequences at local and global scales. Managing this pollution is challenging because of diffuse sources and complex relationships between aquatic and atmospheric emissions. We illustrate this for a UK county that has suffered outbreaks of microbial pollution and eutrophication. We surveyed 49 livestock farms covering 12% of total agricultural grazed land. Soil nutrient status and whole-farm nutrient balances were determined, and the environmental impact of alleviating sub-optimal soil pH by liming was estimated at the county level. Only 37% of fields contained more P than was required for satisfactory grass growth, and soil acidity and available K were often limiting production. The mean farm N, P and K balances were similar to a modelled farm in England & Wales and EU indicators for the majority of North West Europe. This suggests that local eutrophication events linked to agriculture are more likely to relate to improper timing of nutrient application rather than over-application. None of the surveyed farmers used nutrient decision support tools, largely due to a lack of awareness and competing sources of information. Liming soils to pH 6.0 was estimated to both reduce N-leaching and N2O emissions; however, the net climate-change impact would be negative as the direct CO2 emissions would exceed CO2 equivalent emissions of not liming by 394% (95% CI 201–21,232). Although liming currently presents a net cost to farmers, a sensitivity analysis suggests that reduced lime cost could lead to economic benefit to farmers but still increased greenhouse gas emissions. The results are applicable to all pasture-based agricultural systems where there is a drive to maintain or increase production through optimal soil and nutrient management. The findings demonstrate an important trade-off between reducing aquatic and atmospheric pollution and agricultural productivity, and the need to improve communication of this trade-off to farmers.