Multinutrient Fertilization and Placement to Improve Yield and Nutrient Concentration of Tall Fescue

Although tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) is one of the major cool‐season grasses used for animal feed in the USA, it often is unfertilized or is top‐dressed with N alone. Additional fertilizer nutrients applied with N may improve yield and quality. Subsurface placement of N has been shown to improve cool‐season grass production, but data are limited regarding effects of placement of different fertilizer combinations on elemental composition and yield of tall fescue. Thus, a field study was conducted from 1984 to 1986 to determine the effects of multinutrient fertilization (N‐only, NP, NPK, NPKSBZn, and PKSBZn without N) and placement method [broadcast, dribble (surface banding), and knifing (subsurface banding)] on nutrient concentrations and yield of tall fescue. Nitrogen was the primary nutrient limiting fescue growth. Adding N doubled yields of samples that estimated early‐grazing potential and tripled yields of hay. Supplementing N fertilization with additional nutrients increased tissue concentrations of the added nutrient, but increases in yield were small and often not significant. Broadcasting fertilizers resulted in greater yields of early‐grazing samples and higher P and K concentrations than knifing; however, by hay harvest, knifing resulted in about 10% greater yields and 20% greater N concentrations. Dribble applications generally resulted in responses intermediate between those of broadcast and knifing.