Europ. J.

Agronomy 24 (2006) 343–348

Nitrogen fertilizer application rates on cereal crops according

to available mineral and organic soil nitrogen
K. Mengel ∗ , B. Hütsch, Y. Kane
Justus Liebig University Giessen, Institute of Plant Nutrition, Germany
Received 2 May 2005; received in revised form 17 November 2005; accepted 6 December 2005

Abstract
From all plant nutrients N fertilizer rates deserve highest attention as too high rates may result in nitrate leaching, volatilisation of N2 O (greenhouse
gas) and affect the farmers’ profit. Too low rates will also depress the profit. The problem is accentuated by the fact that crops not only feed from soil
inorganic but also from organic soil N. Most soil N tests do not consider the available organic soil N. The Electro-Ultra-Filtration (EUF) method
applied by us takes into account the EUF extractable inorganic and organic soil N for calculating the N fertilizer rate. This method developed at the
Liebig University Giessen is called Giessen model (sampling in autumn out of the upper soil layer, 0–30 cm). We compared it with the standard
soil N test the “Nmin method” recommended by German officials which method does not consider the available organic soil N (sampling in spring
out of three or two soil layers, depending on soil depth). The investigation was carried out on farmers’ fields on five different sites with winter
cereals (wheat, barley) in 1989/1990, 1990/1991 and 1991/1992. Recommended fertilizer application rates differed somewhat for both methods.
Of the 23 cases, significantly higher grain yields were obtained five times by Nmin and four times by EUF; otherwise grain yields did not differ
significantly between both methods. Grain yield and crude protein concentration were increased by fertilizer N compared with the plots without
N fertilizer. On the site Giessen, however, there were some cases in which the N fertilizer did not increase grain yield. The soil of the Giessen site
was rich in interlayer NH4 + which is not recovered by the EUF and Nmin method, but which obviously contributed to the N supply of the crop,
and therefore the N rates were too high. Grain crude protein concentration were higher with Nmin for Wernborn and Bruchkobel sites because
of higher N fertilizer rates. For the Giessen site in 1989/1990 the reverse was true. Nitrogen agronomic efficiency (AE) ranged from 0 to 35.6.
Apparent N recovery (ANR) ranged from 0 to 111. The gross profit differed from −88 to 489 Euro/ha. Negative values (three cases out of 23) were
found on the Giessen site where no yield increase was obtained by the N fertilizer because of interlayer NH4 + . This interpretation is supported by
the finding that interlayer NH4 + significantly decreased from autumn to spring. Apart from the results found in 1 year on the Giessen site, the gross
profit calculation showed that a precise N fertilizer application based on soil analysis yields a high profitability of cereal production.
© 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Nitrogen; Availability; Yield; Fertilizer recommendation; N fertilizer rate; Cereal; Economical grain yield; Soil N

1. Introduction N fertilization. The reason for this is that such investigations

Nitrogen is the most important fertilizer for yield, quality and
environment. For this reason the efficient use of N fertilizer is of
major importance. The efficiency of N fertilizer rates depends
much on the level of available soil N in the rooting zone. Nitrogen
fertilizer rates should take into account the available N in soils.
Until now, however, on a world-wide-scale the adjustment of
N fertilizer rates to N soil tests is rare and so is calculating
the nitrogen agronomic efficiency and the profit obtained by
∗ Corresponding author at: Justus Liebig University, Am Weingarten1, D
35415 Pohlheim, Germany. Tel.: +49 6403 62313; fax: +49 6403 978793.
E-mail address: Konrad.Mengel@ernaehrung.uni-giessen.de (K. Mengel).
require trials on farmers’ field over several years. One major
obstacle in this respect is that, besides inorganic N, organic soil
N mineralised during the growth period also contributes to crop
nutrition (Appel and Mengel, 1992). To our knowledge, there is
only one routine method which extracts, besides inorganic N an
organic N fraction which is taken into account for calculating the
N fertilizer rate. The EUF extracted organic N consists mainly
of low molecular amino N (oligopeptides) and amino sugars
(Mengel et al., 1999). The importance of amino sugars as source
for the N mineralisation in soils was also found by Mulvaney et
al. (2001).
The Electro-Ultra-Filtration (EUF) method (Nemeth, 1979;
Mengel et al., 1999) is now widely practised in Germany and
Austria not only for N but also for other plant nutrients. The

1161-0301/$ – see front matter © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.eja.2005.12.001
344 K. Mengel et al. / Europ. J. Agronomy 24 (2006) 343–348
results presented in the paper here were obtained from field trials
in farmers’ fields during several years on different sites in the
area of Giessen in which the effect of N fertilizer rates for wheat
and barley based on the Nmin method were compared with N
rates according to the Giessen model, in which soils are extracted
by the Electro-Ultra-Filtration technique (EUF method). By this
technique, organic N and inorganic N (nitrate and ammonium)
are extracted (Mengel et al., 1999). Both organic and inorganic
fractions are taken into account for calculating the N fertilizer
rate assuming that 1 mg N/kg soil extracted, inorganic or organic,
equals 45 kg available N/ha for mineral soils. Soil samples are
taken in late autumn from the upper soil layer (0–30 cm). For
the recommended N fertilizer rate also the expected grain yield
is taken into account which generally is higher on deep rooted
fertile soils than on sandy soils. Therefore, the farmers, to whom
we give a recommendation are asked which yield level they
expect.
The Nmin method and EUF method compared in our inves-
tigation differ much in their practicability. Sampling soils in
spring, as is the case for the Nmin method, from different soil
layers when soil moisture is still high, is very laborious during a
relatively short period before vegetation begins. This contrasts
much with the EUF method where soil samples are taken during
November and December from the upper soil layer which eas-
ily can be done by farmers. The samples are dried and thus can
be easily handled. It is for this reason that the Nmin method
was not accepted by German farmers. Concerning the EUF
method, today more than 50,000 soil samples per year are anal-
ysed for their available plant nutrients including inorganic and
organic N by EUF in the EUF laboratory at Rain am Lech (Ger-
many). Based on this EUF analysis, fertilizer recommendations
are given to farmers which arrive at their desk still before the
end of the year. This “EUF service” has much contributed to an
efficient use of fertilizers particularly N to the benefit of farmers
and the environment.
The trials, described in the following should also provide data
on the agronomic efficiency (AE) of N fertilizer, the apparent N
fertilizer recovery (ANR) and on the gross profit under practical
farming conditions. Concerning gross profit hardly any actual
data can be found in literature.
2. Materials and methods
The most important characteristics of the experimental soils
are shown in Table 1. Soil pH was determined in a 10 mM CaCl2
solution; soil texture by the sedimentation method (Tributh,
Table 1
Soil characteristics, most important clay minerals, soil classification according to the FAO-System (Spargaaren, 2000)
Site Classification Parent matter Clay minerals
Wernborn Vertic luvisol Loess Illite, Fe–Al oxides
Bruchkobel Dystric fluvisol River sediment Fe–Al oxides
Giessen Eutric fluvisol River sediment Smectite, vermiculite
Hassenhausen Orthic luvisol Loess Illite
Ossenheim Orthic luvisol Loess Illite
1970) and the assignments of clay minerals to the soils accord-
ing to investigations of Tributh et al. (1987). Soil classification
corresponds to the international taxonomy (Spargaaren, 2000).
The selected soils are typical arable soils in Germany, particu-
larly those derived from loess. Mean annual rainfall intensities
are 600 mm for Bruchkobel and Giessen, 630 mm for Wern-
born and Hassenhausen, and 580 mm for Ossenheim. The crop
species were winter wheat (Triticum sativum) and winter barley
(Hordeum vulgare). The cultivars differed for the various sites
and years and were those used by the farmers.
Except N, soils were well supplied with other plant nutri-
ents. The Giessen and the Wernborn site contained appre-
ciable amounts of interlayer NH4 + with a concentration of
around 220 mg N/kg soil which means roughly a quantity of
2000 kg N/ha in a rooting depth of 60 cm (Kane, 2001). The
inorganic and organic N extracted by EUF differed for sites,
seasons, and years. Concentrations found in autumn at sampling
time were in a range 3–18 mg N organic, 2–15 mg N for nitrate
and 1–5 N mg N for ammonium/kg soil.
The total N required for a winter cereal crop (wheat, barley)
is calculated from the assumption that the production of 1 mg
grain requires 30 kg N/ha, e.g. for a yield 8 mg grain/ha a total
of 240 kg N/ha is needed. Half of this quantity is required for
the first N application in early spring and half for later. From
the N quantity for the first application, the amounts of EUF
extracted NH4 + + NO3 − are subtracted. This gives the actual N
fertilizer rate for the first split N application. From the later split
applications, generally one at shooting and one at ear emergence,
the quantity of extracted EUF organic N is subtracted. It depends
on the crop stand as well as on farmers’ intention whether this is
subtracted from the N application at shooting or ear emergence.
Considering the EUF extracted, organic N at the later stages,
is based on the assumption that mineralisation of organic soil
N is later in the season when soil temperature is high enough.
For cereals following a leguminous crop, 40 kg N/ha less and
in cases where an intercrop was incorporated into the soil in
the preceding autumn 30 kg N/ha less is subtracted from the N
quantity calculated according to the Giessen model.
For the Nmin method, soil samples were taken from the lay-
ers 0–30 and 30–60 cm layer for the Bruchkobel, Wernborn
and Giessen sites because the deeper soil layer (60–90 cm) was
too stony; for the Hassenhausen and Ossenheim sites soil sam-
ples were taken from the 0–30, 30–60 and 60–90 cm in spring
because also the deeper layer contains inorganic N. The sam-
ples were analysed as fresh samples according to the method of
Wehrmann and Scharpf (1979). In the soil samples NO3 − and
Sand (g/kg soil) Silt (g/kg soil) Clay (g/kg soil) organic C organic N pH
(g/kg soil) (g/kg soil)
176 559 265 11.0 1.24 4.9
650 293 57 6.6 0.71 5.5
160 530 310 16.5 1.81 6.6
200 673 122 12.0 1.32 6.7
115 670 212 19.9 2.28 7.3
 K. Mengel et al. / Europ. J. Agronomy 24 (2006) 343–348 345

Table 2 and fertilizer rate on a ha base. Prices of the EU market were

Nitrogen fertilizer rates, total of spring + later application, kg N/ha taken: 100 Euro/mg grain, 0.5 Euro/kg N fertilizer. The gross
Plough Cultivator No tillage profit values do not comprise the costs for soil sampling and
Nmin EUF Nmin EUF Nmin EUF
sample analysis.
Statistics: N fertilizer effect + tillage effect by ANOVA
Wheat according to Köhler et al. (1992). Since the main target of the
Wernborn 1989/1990 160 100 160 100 160 130
Wernborn 1990/1991 160 110 165 115 165 110
investigation was to compare the Nmin method with the EUF
Bruchkobel 1989/1990 180 140 180 140 180 140 method also the significance for the apparent N recovery, the
Ossenheim 1991/1992 – – 180 160 140 145 N fertilizer efficiency and the gross profit was of interest. For
Giessen 1991/1992 100 147 110 145 126 140 the estimation whether for these criteria significant differences
Hassenhausen 1991/1992 160 185 180 180 140 170 between both methods exist, the variances for the terms in the
Barley relevant equations (see above) were taken into account. The vari-
Giessen 1989/1990 80 130 90 130 90 120 ance in N uptake in the N fertilized treatments differs between
Hassnhausen 1989/1990 90 110 100 100 90 100
the Nmin and the EUF method; the variance for the treatment
without N is the same for both methods, and the N fertilizer rate
has no variance. Hence only the difference in N uptake of the
NH4 + were analysed. The first rate of the split N application N fertilized treatments is decisive for the significance. If this
(spring) was calculated according to the mineral N in the soil difference in N uptake between both methods is significant also
samples (Wehrmann and Scharpf, 1986). The second and third the difference for the apparent N fertilizer is significant (Table 5)
rates of N application were calculated according to the SBA Sys- and vice versa. For the nitrogen fertilizer efficiency the variance
tem of the Hessian Agricultural Research Station (Kane, 2001). of the grain yield in the N fertilized plots is decisive. If this
The total N rates (sum of split applications) applied are shown variance indicates a significant difference between the Nmin
in Table 2. and EUF method also the N fertilizer efficiency differs between
The field trials were carried out on farmers’ fields on five both methods and vice versa (Table 6). Analogous is true for the
different sites in the area of Giessen and north of Frankfurt in gross profit because the fertilizer price and the grain price have
the 1989/1990, 1990/1991, and 1991/1992 seasons. The whole no variance (Table 7).
experimental set up comprised three different tillage techniques:
plough, cultivator, and no tillage. Therefore, plots were as long 3. Results
as the fields which means several 100 m. On the Ossenheim site
there was no plough treatment. The N fertilizer treatments were In all cases N fertilizer application resulted in significant grain
arranged vertical to the tillage treatments with a length of 25 m yield increases (Table 3) with the exception of the site “Giessen”,
in the direction of the tillage and a width of 4 m. There were where in four out of 12 cases no significant yield increase was
three N treatments: (1) no N fertilizer, (2) N fertilizer according obtained. From a total of 23 cases, in eight cases a significant dif-
to the N min method, and (3) N fertilizer rate according to the ference between the grain yield obtained with Nmin compared
Giessen model (EUF method). The N plots were randomised with EUF was found. In five cases the Nmin, in three cases the
with four replicates/treatment. Split N rates were applied at early EUF was superior. Particularly on the Wernborn site, EUF gave
spring, at tillering and at ear emergence according to the Nmin lower yields because of too low fertilizer rates.
method or EUF method (Giessen model), respectively. Crops Grain protein concentration (Table 4) was increased by N
were harvested from the centre of each plot with an experimental fertilizer in all cases. There were significant differences in
combiner with a mowing width of 1.32 m and at a strip length grain protein concentrations between Nmin and EUF. On the
at 15 m. Wernborn and Bruchkobel site, Nmin was superior, on the Has-
After harvest, grain and straw were dried and analysed for senhausen and Giessen site EUF was superior. Apparent N
their N concentration by the Makro N apparatus. Crude protein recovery(ANR) was high (Table 5) with the exception of the
concentration was calculated by multiplying the N concentration Giessen site (Barley 1989/1990, Nmin variant). Here in the
(g N/kg) with 6.25. Apparent nitrogen recovery (ANR) was cal- plough treatment the ANR was zero, because the N uptake in the
culated as N uptake (fertilized plot) – N uptake (zero plot)/total treatment without N did not significantly differ from the N fer-
N fertilizer rate × 100, calculated on a ha base (Craswell and tilized one. In two cases (Wheat Wernborn cultivator treatment,
Godwin, 1984. Nmin variant and Wheat Hassenhausen 1991/1992 no tillage
Agronomic efficiency (AE) for N was calculated according treatment, EUF variant) the ANR was greater than 100 which
to Craswell and Godwin (1984): grain yield (fertilized plot) – means that the N uptake of the crop was higher than the fertil-
grain yield (zero plot)/N fertilizer; yield and N fertilizer in kg/ha. izer N rate. From the 23 cases in two cases yielded the Nmin and
The economic profit of farmers depends not only on the AE in six cases the EUF method significantly higher ANR values
but also on the quantity of N applied. The gross profit which is (Table 5).
the money/ha the farmer earns due to N fertilizer was calculated In most cases medium to high N agronomic efficiencies (AE)
according to the following equation: were found (Table 6). On the Giessen site, however, for wheat
Gross profit = grain yield (fertilized plot) − grain yield (zero and barley in the plough treatment and in two cases in the no
plot) × grain price − fertilizer price × fertilitzer rate, grain price tillage treatment the AE was zero which means the N uptake
346 K. Mengel et al. / Europ. J. Agronomy 24 (2006) 343–348

Table 3
Effect of N fertilizer on grain yield, mg/ha
Plough Cultivator No tillage L.S.D. < 0.05

No N Nmin EUF No N Nmin EUF No N Nmin EUF

Wheat
Wernborn 1989/1990 5.48 7.22* 6.66 5.77 7.40 7.30 5.55 7.77* 6.69 0.429
Wernborn 1990/1991 2.08 6.81* 5.31 2.08 7.80* 6.14 3.15 6.14 6.10 0.744
Bruchkobel 1989/1990 2.28 3.91 3.91 2.73 3.64 4.37* 2.73 4.28 4.51 0.537
Ossenheim 1990/1991 – – – 3.66 5.00 5.61 4.21 6.47 5.98 0.770
Giessen 1990/1991 6.25 6.80 6.09 6.26 7.34 7.16 6.80 7.77* 6.89 0.793
Hassenhausen 1991/1992 7.00 8.27 9.91* 7.00 8.48 8.27 7.21 9.12 10.2* 0.777
Barley
Giessen 1989/1990 5.00 5.61 5.89 3.01 5.86 5.73 5.12 6.10 6.34 0.656
Hassenhausen 1989/1990 3.75 6.52 6.68 4.89 7.01 7.66* 5.38 7.34 7.49 0.589
* Significant difference between Nmin and EUF.

Table 4
Effect of N fertilizer rates on crude protein concentrations in grains, g/kg
Plough Cultivator No tillage L.S.D. < 0.05

No N Nmin EUF No N Nmin EUF No N Nmin EUF

Wheat
Wernborn 1989/1990 99 137* 126 92 139* 122 81 136* 129 6.6
Wernborn 1990/1991 96 155* 132 94 149* 121 105 149* 129 5.9
Bruchkobel 1989/1990 97 184* 171 103 184* 172 116 180* 169 7.9
Ossenheim 1990/1991 – – – 149 171 160 157 182 180 6.4
Giessen 1991/1992 153 164 171* 133 163 160 150 165 163 7.4
Hassenhausen 1991/1992 134 166 178* 132 163 179* 135 168 176* 4.5
Barley
Giessen 1989/1990 87 93 111* 74 94 113* 84 95 108* 5.7
Hassenhausen 1989/1990 79 87 102* 72 95 106* 73 90 96 8.5
* Significant difference between N min and EUF.

did not differ between the treatment without N and the fertilized
treatment. The Giessen soil is rich in interlayer NH4 + which
presumably contributed to crop nutrition.
On the site Giessen in several cases negative gross profit val-
ues were obtained because of N fertilizer costs without a yield
response to the N application (Table 7). Comparing the Nmin
and the EUF recommendation gross profit values depended on
the grain yield which was significantly higher in five cases for
Nmin and in four cases for EUF from a total of 23 cases (Table 7).
Gross profit values >200 show that N fertilizer application can
be highly profitable provided that the N fertilizer rate is adjusted
to the available soil N.

Table 5 Table 6
Apparent fertilizer N recovery (ANR) Effect of N fertilizer rates on the N Agronomic Efficiency
Plough Cultivator No tillage Plough Cultivator N tillage

Nmin EUF Nmin EUF Nmin EUF Nmin EUF Nmin EUF Nmin EUF

Wheat Wheat
Wernborn 1989/1990 49 49 65 64 67 63 Wernborn 1989/1990 9.98 10.1 9.55 11.3 13.0* 10.7
Wernborn 1990/1991 99 93 105* 87 68 74 Wernborn 1990/1991 30.8 29.7 35.6 33.2 17.9 26.2
Bruchkobel 1989/1990 63 66 44 65* 52 62 Bruchkobel 1989/1990 8.94 11.6 4.83 11.5* 8.34 12.6
Ossenheim 1991/1992 – – 38 54 83 66 Ossenheim 1991/1992 – – 7.37 11.3 12.8 10.6
Giessen 1991/1992 36 23 70 42 77* 36 Giessen 1991/1992 0 0 9.95 6.81 8.79* 0
Hassenhausen 1991/1992 61 35 56 63 98 111* Hassenhausen 1991/1992 7.70 9.99 9.37 7.87 12.2 16.8*
Barley Barley
Giessen 1989/1990 0 42* 36 85* 13 42* Giessen 1989/1990 0 0 29.0 18.7 10.8 0
Hassenhausen 1989/1990 58 64 66 95* 56 60 Hassenhausen 1989/1990 30.3 26.8 20.6 25.4* 22.0 20.2
* Significant difference between Nmin and EUF, p ≤ 0.05. * Significant difference between Nmin and EUF, p < 0.05.
 K. Mengel et al. / Europ. J. Agronomy 24 (2006) 343–348 347

Table 7 were attained (Table 5). Our ANR values were, in many cases,
Effect of N fertilizer on gross profit, Euro/ha higher than those recently reported by Delin et al. (2005) with
Plough Cultivator No tillage optimum N fertilizer rates to winter wheat and spring barley. This
Nmin EUF Nmin EUF Nmin EUF
shows that our N fertilizer rates were in the optimum range with
the exception of the Giessen site (Table 5) because of interlayer
Wheat NH4 + . From the 23 comparisons between Nmin and EUF shown
Wernborn 1989/1990 94* 68 63 103 142* 49
Wernborn 1990/1991 393* 286 489* 348 216 240
in Table 5, in two cases the Nmin and in six cases the EUF ANR
Bruchkobel 1989/1990 73 93 1 94* 65 108 values were higher.
Ossenheim 1991/1992 – – 44 115 156 104 The agronomic efficiency values (Table 6) differed in a wide
Giessen 1991/1992 −15 −88 53 17 47* −72 range and on the Giessen site several zero values were obtained
Hassenhausen 1991/1992 47 189* 58 37 121 229* because the N fertilizer did not yield a significant grain yield
Barley increase. The profit of yield increase by N fertilizer should at
Giessen 1989/1990 21 33 240 207 53 62 least cover the cost of fertilizer which in the case here should be
Hassenhausen 1989/1990 232 238 162 227* 146 161
at least five times higher than the fertilizer cost. This was given
* Significant difference between Nmin and EUF, p < 0.05. in 40 of 46 cases. The actual profit, however, depends also on the
amount of fertilizer applied (see Section 2). For the gross profit
the grain yield increase obtained by N fertilizer plays a decisive
4. Discussion role (Table 7). Negative values were found on the Giessen site
because of interlayer NH4 + and in one case “Wheat Bruchkobel
Apart from the Giessen site N fertilizer recommendation 1989/1990 Nmin variant” the value was one because the N fertil-
according to both methods, Nmin and EUF, yielded satisfactory izer recommendation was too high (180 kg N/ha). Although on
results documented by grain yield and gross profit. Since inter- the Ossenheim site grain yields were unusually low because of
layer NH4 + of Fluvisols contributes to plant nutrition (Mengel insufficient water supply, the gross profit values obtained were
and Scherer, 1981; Elmaci et al., 2002) it is likely that also on the still satisfactory, at least in three from four cases because with
Giessen site interlayer NH4 + was taken up by crop and therefore one exception (180 kg N/ha) the fertilizer rates were not too high
in some treatments fertilizer N did not increase grain yield and (Table 2).
led to negative gross profit values, particularly in the 1991/1992 Considering that the investigation comprised different tillage
season (Table 7). This assumption is supported by investigations techniques which certainly had an impact on crop yield and N
of Kane (2001) who found a significant decrease of interlayer availability, with the exception of the results obtained for the
NH4 + in the Giessen soil from autumn to spring. Presumably Giessen site, all other N rates were highly satisfactory for both
this decrease resulted from N uptake of the crop because inter- methods.
layer NH4 + can be taken up by the crop but is not leached In numerous farmers’ fields we realized that N fertilizer appli-
(Scherer, 1993). Although the Wernborn soil is also rich in inter- cation to cereals according to the EUF recommendation resulted
layer NH4 + here the interlayer NH4 + concentration remained in relatively low amounts of mineral N in the rooting depth after
constant from autumn to spring because of other clay minerals harvest, e.g. 30–50 kg N/ha which means there will be no major
(Table 1). N leaching by winter rain fall. This ecological impact deserves
On the Wernborn soil, N rates based on EUF were too low. It mentioning. Under such conditions the organic EUF fraction is
is possible that in this soil with a pH of 4.9, microbial activity the major source for available soil N during the growth period.
was low because of acid soil conditions and thus mineralisation From the results it is concluded that the EUF extractable
of organic N was lower than in the loess derived soils with a inorganic and organic soil N are important fractions for the N
neutral pH. On such loess derived soils, being the most impor- supply of crops and contribute to calculating a precise N fertil-
tant arable soils in Germany, the EUF method was established izer rate. This is of eminent importance for the farmers’, profit,
(Steffens et al., 1990; Ziegler et al., 1992; Barekzai et al., 1992). and according to the apparent nitrogen recovery, a surplus of
Grain yield on the Ossenheim site was low because of insuf- inorganic N in the soil at harvest is thus avoided.
ficient water supply during grain filling. This assumption is in
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