The aim of this study was to determine the effect of housing system (or manure management system) and season on manure N recovery and volatilization using an N mass balance. Dietary, milk, and manure N were monitored together with outside temperatures in 6 dairy barns. Three barns were designed as conventional freestalls (cubicle, CUB) with an automatic manure scraper system and concrete floor, in which the gutter in the middle was continuously scraped (every 2-4 h) and the slurry was conveyed toward an open-air concrete pool. The other 3 barns were designed as a loose housing system (HS) with a compost-bedded pack (CB) and conventional confinement housing provided with a feed alley that was cleaned mechanically (2-3 times per day). The farms under study were located near Lleida in the center of the Ebro valley, in northeastern Spain. Nitrogen recovery was measured twice under farm-like conditions either during spring-summer (3 mo of increasing temperatures) or fall-winter (3 mo of decreasing temperatures). The number of cows per barn ranged from 99 to 473, and average age, mean lactation, and parturition intervals were 4.1 yr, 2.43 lactations, and 426.6 d, respectively. In spring-summer, animals ate more [26.3 vs. 23.8 kg of dry matter (DM)/d] and produced more milk (34.6 vs. 31.3 kg/d ± 0.68). However, milk composition did not change. Stored manure from the CB system showed a higher DM concentration with respect to the CUB system (379.15 vs. 97.65 g/kg of fresh matter); however, N (31.45 vs. 40.2), NH₃-N (5.3 vs. 18.9) and its ratios with phosphorus (NH₃-N:P, 3.52 vs. 5.2) and potassium (NH₃-N:K, 0.615 vs. 2.69) showed the opposite trend. No differences were found in N intake (653 vs. 629.5 g/d) or milk N secretion (190 vs. 177.8 g/d for CUB and CB barns, respectively) although net N recovery of the excreted N (N_intake - N_Milk) was significantly lower in manure in CB barns than in CUB systems (193.8 vs. 389.3 g/d). The proportion of N irreversible loss in relation to the N intake was higher in CB than in CUB barns (42.3 vs. 11.0%). There was no clear association between season and irreversible N losses; however, the housing system was pivotal in the association between N recovery in manure and irreversible losses by volatilization.

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