Cattle urine patches

Urine patches in cattle pastures generate large concentrations of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide through nitrification and denitrification processes in urine-contaminated soils.

[7] Although generally unreactive in the troposphere, nitrous oxide is destroyed during photolysis or reactions with excited oxygen atoms and catalyzes the destruction of ozone in the stratosphere.

Urea concentration represents 52.0% to 93.5% of total urinary nitrogen and is dependent upon the amount of dietary protein consumed by cattle.

[6] Through a process known as ureolysis, the enzyme urease completely hydrolyzes urea to ammonia within one to two days of being excreted and soaked into soils.

Biochar is a carbon-rich compound manufactured from the thermal decomposition of organic matter in oxygen-deprived conditions at relatively low temperatures.

Biochar serves to reduce nitrous oxide emissions by altering nitrogen transformation rates in urine-contaminated soils.

Detailed field data such as seasonal effects and repeated soil exposure are still lacking and research on this subject is ongoing.

[17] Organic agriculture has shown decreased nitrous oxide emissions through limiting the number of cattle present per hectare of pasture.

A decreased number of cattle in one hectare leads to less nitrogenous constituents deposited into the soil at one time and strains the occurrence of nitrification and denitrification.