Canada - Research Shows Swine Manure Improves Soil Biochemical Properties

Research conducted by the University of Saskatchewan has shown repeated applications of swine manure fertilizer helps increase the activity of the enzymes responsible for improving soil fertility. The University of Saskatchewan's Soil Science Department has completed a study which examined the effect of repeated swine manure application on soil biochemical properties. The work was conducted at four long term research sites across Saskatchewan where manure has been applied over a five to eight year period. Senior research Scientist Dr. Jeff Schoenau says the enzymes that were looked at are important in recyling nutrients in the soil. The enzymes that we're looking at are phosphatase, urease, and arylsulfatase. These enzymes are important because they mediate or effectively result in the conversion of nutrients from organic forms into inorganic forms that plants can use. What we found was that, where we had repeated applications of manure compared to unmanured soils, we did see increases in the activity of a couple of the enzymes, urease and phosphatase. We didn't see much effect on the arylsulfatase enzyme and maybe that's not surprising given the fact that the swine manure we were working with had a fairly low sulfur content. But certainly we are seeing that the manure additions are increasing the activity of these enzymes in the soil so I think it's another piece of evidence that points towards the fact that when we add manure and add that organic matter we are increasing the activity of microorganisms in the soil and biological activity and seemingly this increase in the amount of enzyme there would probably be of a benefit in helping in the turnover or recycling of nutrients back into available forms. Dr. Schoenau says an increase in enzyme activity is associated with an increase in the biological activity of the soil and is considered to be an important part of soil quality.