The N content in applied cattle urine ranged from 112–1,641 kg N ha−1 (Table 2). Over a one-month period, the soil N2O emission factor of N in applied urine to soil ranged from 0.01 to 1.23%. The highest N2O emission factor values observed for the LVC pasture (1.23% of applied urine-N) and AVC (0.48% of applied urine-N) pasture were at Estelí (Nicaragua) and Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil), respectively. On the other hand, the lowest N2O emission factors for LVC (0.02% of applied urine-N) and AVC pasture (0.01% of applied urine-N) were both observed at the Taluma site in Colombia (Fig. 2). At the regional level, mean cumulative N2O emissions observed in the urine treatments ranged between 0.02 and 7.5 kg N2O–N ha−1. The highest cumulative N2O emissions for both treatments (LVC and AVC pasture) were observed at St. Augustine (Trinidad and Tobago) and Estelí (Nicaragua) and the lowest were observed at Taluma (Colombia) (Table 2). At the regional level, mean N2O emission factors were significantly, at most 2.5 times, higher (P < 0.0002) in LVC (0.42 ± 0.19% SEM) than AVC (0.18 ± 0.08% SEM) pastures. Also at the regional level mean cumulative N2O emissions in the LVC (3.31 ± 1.09 kg N2O-N ha−1 SEM) were higher than those observed in the AVC (1.91 ± 0.78 kg N2O-N ha−1 SEM) pasture at the 10% level of significance (P = 0.08), based on results presented in Table 2. The N2O emissions at each individual site tended to be higher in LVC pastures than in the AVC pastures, with t-test detecting significant differences at the Nicaragua (Estelí) and Colombia (Patia) sites (Table 2). Rainfall for the measurement period (including data for the period of one week before commencing the monitoring campaigns) explained less of the variation in N2O emission factors in the LVC (66%) pasture compared to the AVC (88%) pasture (Supplementary Fig. S2). No clear effects of air temperature were observed on N2O emission factors.