And what happens then?

Surprisingly little: Given that an equivalent of more than 50 g/m ² of N and 15 g/m² of P are deposited at cattle dung patches, we would have expected significant increases in plant productivity, but did not find any. Even at cattle and sheep urine patches, productivity increases were modest at 15%.

In contrast to the plants, the animals cared: they avoided dung patches (cattle longer than sheep) and showed some preference for urine patches when grazing.

Read more in our  paper just published in Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems (ResearchGate).