Effects of Cow Dung Treated to Various Management Practices and Nitrogen Levels on Maize Grain Yield in the Northern Guinea Savanna of Nigeria

This study consisted of collection and incubation of cow dung, followed by evaluation of the incubated cow dung in field experiments in years 2003 to 2004 at the Institute of Agricultural Research, Ahmadu Bello University and Samaru College of Agriculture farms, all located in Samaru, Zaria. The objectives of this study are to determine the effects of subjecting cow dung to different management practices and nitrogen fertilizer on maize grain yield. The study was a factorial experiment, with 3 cow dung management practices, 4 storage durations in the field and 2 levels of nitrogen. There was a control treatment, where no cow dung or nitrogen fertilizer was applied. These gave a total of 25 treatment combinations, laid out in a randomized complete block design, replicated three times. The results showed that, the best cow dung management practice that gave the highest maize grain yields in the two farms was the surface heaped covered in April, nitrogen amended treatment. The non N amended treatments were not able to significantly increase the maize grain yields than the untreated control.