• Korean Journal of Organic Agriculture
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.421-434
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• 2008

This study was carried out to estimate the selection of appropriate forage crops, proper application levels of livestock manure, and carrying capacity per unit area for organic livestock, as influenced by livestock manure application levels compared with chemical fertilizer to corn and sorghum $\times$ sorghum hybrid, in order to produce organic forages by utilizing livestock manure. For both corns and sorghum $\times$ sorghum hybrids, no fertilizer plots had significantly (p<0.05) lower annual dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP) and total digestible nutrients (TDN) yields than those of other plots, whereas the N+P+K plots ranked the highest yields, followed by 150% cattle manure plots and 100% cattle manure plots. Dry matter, CP and TDN yields of cattle manure plots were significantly (p<0.05) higher than those of no fertilizer and P+K plots. In applying cattle manure, the yields of cattle slurry plots tended to be a little higher than those of composted cattle manure plots. Assuming that corns and sorghum $\times$ sorghum hybrids produced from this trial were fed at 70% level to 450kg of Hanwoo heifer with 400g of average daily gain, livestock carrying capacity (head/year/ha) ranked the highest in N+P+K plots of the case of corns (mean 6.7 heads), followed by 150% cattle slurry plots (mean 5.6 heads), 150% composted cattle manure plots (mean 4.8 heads), 100% cattle slurry plots (mean 4.4 heads), 100% composted cattle manure plots (mean 4.3 heads), P+K plots (mean 4.1 heads), and no fertilizer plots (mean 3.1 heads). Meanwhile, in case of sorghum $\times$ sorghum hybrids, N+P+K plots (mean 5.7 heads) ranked the highest carrying capacity, followed by $100{\sim}150%$ cattle slurry plots (mean $4.8{\sim}5.2$ heads), 150% composted cattle manure plots (mean 4.7 heads), 100 % composted cattle manure plots (mean 4.3 heads), P+K plots (mean 3.8 heads), and no fertilizer plots (mean 3.4 heads). The results indicated that replacing chemical fertilizer by livestock manure application to cultivation soil for forage crops could enhance not only DM and TDN yields, but also organic stock carrying capacity. In conclusion, it was conceived that organic forage production by reutilizing livestock manure might contribute to reduced environmental pollution and the production of environment friendly agricultural products through resources recycling.