Field Trials of Alum Amendment of Broiler Litter to Reduce Soluble Phosphorus

Proceedings of the 1999 Georgia Water Resources Conference, March 30 and 31, Athens, Georgia.Aluminum sulfate (alum) has been demonstrated to reduce ventilation and heating requirements by lowering pH and thus reducing ammonia release from broiler litter during brooding of broiler chickens raised on previously used litter. It also has been shown to reduce runoff of phosphorus from fields where litter is applied, and increase nitrogen levels in treated litter. Most previous research, however, has been done in locations and under different litter management than is common in Georgia. This research compared broiler houses in North Georgia operated under a common management scheme with other houses using alum amendment of the litter. The second stage compared houses with alum added at full rate with others where alum was added at half the recommended rate. This research demonstrated that much of the economic benefit of adding alum can be achieved by adding only half the recommended rate. Soluble phosphorus and ammonium nitrogen levels were adversely affected by reducing application rates. While the environmental benefit of phosphorus runoff reduction would be lessened by adding less alum, an advantage may be realized industry wide by reducing the application rate since more growers would be likely to use it due to economic benefits.Sponsored and Organized by: U.S. Geological Survey, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, The University of Georgia, Georgia State University, Georgia Institute of TechnologyThis book was published by the Institute of Ecology, The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602-2202 with partial funding provided by the U.S. Department of Interior, geological Survey, through the Georgia Water Research Insttitute as authorized by the Water Research Institutes Authorization Act of 1990 (P.L. 101-397). The views and statements advanced in this publication are solely those of the authors and do not represent official views or policies of the University of Georgia or the U.S. Geological Survey or the conference sponsors