Nitrogen availability in organic fertilizers from tannery and slaughterhouse by-products

Agriculture can play a primary role in the context of nutrients recovery by promoting the use of organic fertilizers (OFs). In order to use them efficiently, it is necessary to predict the nitrogen (N) bioavailability, which is a challenging matter due to the different physical-chemical characteristics of commercially available OFs. This study aims to evaluate hot-water extractable N as a rapid and cheap chemical indicator of bioavailable N. The trial was conducted on nine animal-based OFs obtained from different raw materials and treatment processes. They were fully characterized and the bioavailable N was determined by a 7-week soil incubation experiment. The results showed that hot-water extractable N underestimated bioavailable N in the case of leather meal based OFs; however, a significant linear regression fitting was achieved (R2 = 0.53). The C:N ratio was also assessed, which showed a negative correlation (−0.87) and a better linear regression fitting (R2 = 0.76) with the bioavailable N, but manifested some limitations in the prediction of leather meal based products. This experiment showed that both hot-water extractable N and C:N ratio can provide useful information for farmers in managing this class of OFs.