Otsekülvi mõju mulla kvaliteedile Eesti tootmispõldudel

Finding out the best agricultural management practices for certain climatic regions and soils is crucial to maintain soils quality. One of the practices, to stop soil erosion, reduce leaching and increase soil organic carbon content, is no-tillage. No tillage is coming more popular also in Estonia. It helps to reduce fuel and labour costs. However, as there is missing decades long practice of no-tillage in Estonia, its effect on soil quality is not clear. At the same time, easy methods to detect soil quality are needed next to the laboratory analyses. During the project iSQPER the visual assessment tool was developed for easy detection of soil quality. The aim of the current study was to compare visual assessment with laboratory measurements on Estonian no-till fields in the 2016. The study was done on sandy loam Gleyic Stagnic Luvisol in Põlva and sandy loam Stagnic Luvisol in Tartu County. Visual assessment was made from the soil upper 30 cm layer, laboratory measurements from 5–10 cm and 25–30 cm depth. The parameters studied were: erodibility, water logging, soil structure and slaking, colour, porosity, plough pan, organic carbon content, penetration resistance and amount of earthworms. The study revealed slightly better soil quality under no-tillage by visual assessment. In most cases laboratory analyses confirmed these results. Structural distribution was better by ploughing compared with no tillage. However, fine aggregate (0.25–2 mm) stability was higher under no-tillage compared with ploughing. There were no significant differences in number of earthworms between practices.Uurimistööd on toetanud Euroopa Liidu Horizont 2020 teaduse ja innovatsiooni grant Nr 635750 iSQAPER

The Application of an Unmanned Aerial System and Machine Learning Techniques for Red Clover-Grass Mixture Yield Estimation under Variety Performance Trials

A significant trend has developed with the recent growing interest in the estimation of aboveground biomass of vegetation in legume-supported systems in perennial or semi-natural grasslands to meet the demands of sustainable and precise agriculture. Unmanned aerial systems (UAS) are a powerful tool when it comes to supporting farm-scale phenotyping trials. In this study, we explored the variation of the red clover-grass mixture dry matter (DM) yields between temporal periods (one- and two-year cultivated), farming operations [soil tillage methods (STM), cultivation methods (CM), manure application (MA)] using three machine learning (ML) techniques [random forest regression (RFR), support vector regression (SVR), and artificial neural network (ANN)] and six multispectral vegetation indices (VIs) to predict DM yields. The ML evaluation results showed the best performance for ANN in the 11-day before harvest category (R2 = 0.90, NRMSE = 0.12), followed by RFR (R2 = 0.90 NRMSE = 0.15), and SVR (R2 = 0.86, NRMSE = 0.16), which was furthermore supported by the leave-one-out cross-validation pre-analysis. In terms of VI performance, green normalized difference vegetation index (GNDVI), green difference vegetation index (GDVI), as well as modified simple ratio (MSR) performed better as predictors in ANN and RFR. However, the prediction ability of models was being influenced by farming operations. The stratified sampling, based on STM, had a better model performance than CM and MA. It is proposed that drone data collection was suggested to be optimum in this study, closer to the harvest date, but not later than the ageing stage

40 Producing High Quality Feed : Grassland Management

Ecosystem Health and Sustainable Agricultur

40 Producing High Quality Feed : Grassland Management

Ecosystem Health and Sustainable Agricultur

40 Producing High Quality Feed : Grassland Management

Ecosystem Health and Sustainable Agricultur

The interaction of soil aggregate stability with other soil properties as influenced by manure and nitrogen fertilization

Soil water-stable aggregate (WSA) stability is one of the most important indicators of soil health, because it influences chemical, biological and other physical properties. At the same time, WSA formation, stabilization and degradation are also some of the most complex processes that occur in the soil, making them difficult to fully understand. In particular, there is a lack of research on WSA stability in the Baltic region. To gain a better understanding how aggregation occurs in Estonian pedo-climatic conditions, this study was conducted in 2014– 2015 in a sandy loam Stagnic Luvisol (LV-st) (WRB, 2014). Potato and barley plots were analysed in a three-year crop rotation (potato → spring wheat → barley) with straw removal. The nitrogen (N) fertilization treatments were 0, 40, 80, 120 and 160 kg ha-1 yr-1 N, both without and with 40 Mg ha-1 fermented cattle farmyard manure (FYM) application prior to potato planting in the previous autumn. WSA stability was determined by Eijkelkamp’s wet sieving apparatus from air-dried soil samples of less than 2 mm in diameter. The study revealed a negative correlation (r = −0.16) between increased N rates and WSA stability, regardless of FYM applications. Although soil organic carbon (SOC) content increased with additional N fertilization rates, the reduction in soil acidity (pHKCl) levels caused by N fertilization, most likely repealed the positive SOC content effect on WSA stability. In general, compared with sole N fertilization, FYM application had a positive effect on WSA stability. However, even though WSA stability did not always increase with FYM applications, it still had a positive effect on bulk density, SOC content and soil acidity levels. Further research is needed in Estonia due to the complexities involved in the soil aggregation process.This study was supported by the H2020 project iSQAPER-635750

Water satability of soil aggregates in a 50-year-old soil formation experiment on calcareous glacial till

Soil formation on the human time scale is immensely time consuming, although it can be significantly accelerated through the effects of vegetation. The content of water-stable aggregates (WSAs) is a useful indicator for determining both the soil development level and the soil quality. However, in severely degraded soils, especially in the Baltic pedoclimatic region, the effects of vegetation on the aggregate stability have been poorly studied. Therefore, to obtain more knowledge about the impact of vegetation on WSA, and thereby knowing how to improve it, this study was conducted on a long-term soil formation experiment in Estonia near Tartu. In 1964, the initial soil from an area of 20 × 8 m down to 100 cm depth was replaced with a sandy loam calcareous glacial till. The experiment started on April 26, 1965, when plants were sown on the plot. The topsoil (0–20 cm) samples were analyzed in 1966, 2000, 2007, and 2014. The study indicated that perennial grasses (meadow fescue and common meadow-grass) fertilized with P40K75, compared to N150P40K75, decreased the WSA content, as well at the accumulation rate of soil organic carbon (SOC) and the total nitrogen content (Ntot). The hybrid alfalfa treatment resulted in the significantly highest SOC and Ntot accumulation, but not in the overall highest WSA content. Under barley, manure positively affected the WSA and SOC, though many other physical properties were not improved. Compared to the initial till under bare fallow, the SOC and Ntot contents were significantly higher under grown crops, but the WSA content remained the same. In addition, regardless of the grown crops, the WSA of larger (0.25–2 mm) aggregates was substantially higher than that of smaller (0.25–1 mm) aggregates. Also, as the relationship between WSA and SOC in the study was linear, the soil was far from C saturation and still in development. Overall, it can be concluded that the cultivation of perennial grasses and hybrid alfalfa on the severely eroded soil is the most rational option to improve the water stability of aggregates and increase the SOC and Ntot contents. However, because of the complexity of the aggregation process, further research is still needed.This study was supported by the Horizon 2020 project iSQAPER (project number 635750) and by the Estonian Research Council grant (PSG147)

Farming systems affect potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) tuber and soil quality

The aim of this study was to investigate how different farming systems influenced tuber yields and quality (N, NO3−, P, K, Ca, Mg, dry matter and starch concentrations) of potato as well as how potato cultivation within a crop rotation under different farming systems affects soil quality (pH, Ntot, Corg, plant available P, K, Ca and Mg concentrations). Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) was part of a five crop rotation experiment in which red clover (Trifolium pratense L.), winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), peas (Pisum sativum L.), potato and barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) followed each other simultaneously on a same field. Data presented in this paper concerned the first 3 years of the rotation during 2009–2011. The experiment was performed with six different farming systems as follows: two organic and four conventional

Effect of different production systems on yield and quality of potato

Effects of different agricultural practises (organic, conventional) on yield and quality of potato were compared

Winter triticale yield formation and quality affected by N rate, timing and splitting

The field experiment was conducted to study the effects different nitrogen (N) quantities (N0 120 kg ha-1) and application regimes (N applied at stages of tillering BBCH28 30 and flag leaf sheath opening BBCH47) on (i) the formation of winter triticale above ground biomass (AGB), (ii) the grain yield (iii) the yield quality, and also (iiii) to find more suitable N fertilizing regimes for winter triticale depending on their utilization. Winter rye and winter wheat were used as reference crops. The efficiency of applying all N at the tillering stage (N100%+N0) was the highest for the grain yield of triticale. N application at development stage of plants BBCH47 increased the grain protein concentration significantly and the increase by 1 kg N was the highest in triticale cultivars. More stabile grain yield was produced by triticales in application regime N+N. N splitting did not influence significantly either the duration of the grain-filling period or the dry matter accumulation rate of triticale. N splitting affected Hagberg falling number (HFN) indirectly through the effect on the grain yield formation and grain protein concentration. HFN was positively correlated with the grain yield and negatively with the grain protein concentration. The suitable N regimes are: 1) triticale as the energy plant N60+N0 N applied at the tillering stage of plants and suitable N norm is not more than 60 kg N ha-1; 2) triticale as a feed or food N60+N60 High grain yield, protein and lysine concentration level are assured then.vo