Cattle excreta deposited on grazed pastures is estimated to represent 16% of global anthropogenic nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions, a powerful greenhouse gas (GHG)5. About 75–95% of cattle ingested N is excreted in either urine or dung, which provides N-rich substrate for nitrification and denitrification6,7. Cattle urine patches can contain very high amounts of soluble N (equivalent to 500–1000 kg N ha−1), more than 2–3 times of the N uptake capacity of pastures8. Annually, about 1.5 Tg of total global anthropogenic N2O emissions (6.7 Tg N2O-N yr−1) are emitted from excreta produced by grazing cattle9,10 through both direct and indirect (from leached and volatilized excreta nitrogen) emissions. About 2% (0.7–6% uncertainty)11 of the nitrogen (N) in deposited urine is lost as N2O. Lower emission factors (EFs) (