Nutrient management and greenhouse gas emissions in corn sil…

In this lab you will report a table for exercise 1. Make sure to keep your information organized. PLEASE SUBMIT THIS TABLE AS PART OF YOUR LAB REPORT. However, in previous labs I have given you the table format. In this lab you will need to develop the table format on your own. You are planning to grow corn silage on a 20-acre parcel. When you grow crops you try to complete a nutrient balance to ensure there are enough nutrients in the soil to grow the crop but not much excess (as excess increases nutrient loss to the environment and costs more money). To do this you generally assume a yield for the crop (usually using previous years data) that allows you to calculate how much nutrients you need to achieve that yield, then measure the soil nutrients to see how many nutrients are already in the soil so you can add the precise amount to meet the nutrient demand from the crop. For this exercise you will expect a corn silage yield around 28 tons per acre. For the soil, you will assume you have a loamy soil with a high yield potential (soil are classified into categories of how much crop yield they can produce). When testing the soil you measured the phosphorus (P) content to be 30 ppm, this is also known as a soil test P of 30 ppm. The previous year you also grew corn silage (farmers use crop rotations where they have a 3 to 6 year cycles for cereal crops they repeat, for example corn-corn- soybean-soybean-wheat-wheat). You will also use a nitrogen(N):corn price ratio of 0.05 to determine the amount of N to add (assume there is no N credit from previous year). Exercise 1: Calculate the amount of mined/synthetic N and P fertilizer needed to meet the crop needs for the corn silage parcel. 1. Determine the pounds N per acre needed to apply for corn silage (Table 1) 2. Determine the pounds of P 2O5 per acre needed to apply for corn silage (Table 2 & 3) 3. You now have the amount of fertilizer per acre, now calculate the needed N and P fertilizer for the 20-acre parcel. 4. Calculate the environmental impact of greenhouse gas emissions from the application of meeting synthetic N and mined P fertilizer needs using the data provided below (remember this is a very basic estimation using general data and may not reflect real conditions that require more extensive modeling). For each scenario determine the total amount of each nutrient type applied (use your answers from part 3 above), then use the factors below to sum the CO 2-eq/kg nutrient and then multiple to get the total kg CO2-eq for each system. Be sure to convert units when necessary. Report your answers in kg CO 2-eq. Synthetic fertilizer emissions: Emissions from the production of synthetic N fertilizer is 5 kg CO2 -eq/kg of N Emissions from the production of mined P fertilizers are 1.25 kg CO 2-eq/kg of P 2 O5 Emissions from the application of synthetic N fertilizer is 25 kg CO 2 eq/kg of N 5. Is there more emissions from N or P in this case? Report all information in a table and answer each question above in paragraph format referencing the table. There should be one paragraph and a table answer for all of Exercise 1. TABLE GUIDANCE: The table heading should be something similar to Nitrogen, phosphorus, and GHG emissions from fertilizer application for a 20-acre parcel. find two articles that give the greenhouse gas emissions for a food product (you should have two values of CO2- eq for one food product). Provide the two values (and cite them appropriately in your lab report). Discuss why there may be differences in these values. Now compare the values with your lab partners and list them in order of foods with the lowest greenhouse gas emissions per kg of food to the highest. Are there any problems with comparing the greenhouse gas emissions from these products this way?