A possible way to maintain the right level of soil fertility involves using some waste as fertilizer, provided its composition does not violate the pertinent local safety standards. There is currently considerable interest in using meat industry waste, both raw and processed, e.g.  meat and bone meal. An experiment on meat and bone meal (MBM) was conducted from 2007-2009 at the research station in Bałcyny (53°36′ N, 19°51′ E), Poland. The aim was to determine the effect of meat and bone meal (MBM) on the content of selected micronutrients in soil as well as in winter and spring wheat grain and in of winter oilseed rape seeds. The effect of MBM fertilizer applied at doses of 1.0, 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5 t ha-1 was compared with mineral fertilization or no fertilization. The experiment did not show any effect of the growing MBM doses on the concentration of micronutrients in soil. As a result of using higher doses of MBM (1.5, 2.0 t ha-1), the content of Cu in 2009 and of Zn in 2007 considerably decreased (2.0 and 2.5 t ha-1). Fertilization with MBM at 2.5 t ha-1 improved the quality of winter wheat grain by increasing the content of Cu, Fe, Mn and Zn. In most cases, the application of MBM increased the content of micronutrients in the grain of spring wheat and seeds of winter rape, although this has not always been confirmed statistically. An analysis of the micronutrient contents revealed a significant decrease in Zn and Fe in winter wheat grain and in Zn in winter oilseed rape seeds as the content of these elements in the soil increased. Regarding the relationship between the Zn content in soil and in seeds of winter oilseed rape, the coefficient of determination was the closest to the coefficient of linear correlation (R2 = 0.931). It was only in 2008 that an increase in the Cu content in winter oilseed rape seeds was determined to have increased parallel to an increase in the micronutrient content in soil. Although the chemical content of MBM implicates its good fertilizer value, the study failed to demonstrate a clearly defined impact of the increased MBM doses on the content of the analysed elements in the soil. This may be attributed to the increase in the bioavailable nitrogen forms, which constitute part of the sorption complex. Their bioavailability may also be subject to mutual relationships among elements, which may act antagonistically (Fe and Mn, Ca and Zn).

20(4)2015