Effect of Manure vs. Fertilizer Inputs on Productivity of Forage Crop Models

Manure produced by livestock activity is a dangerous product capable of causing serious environmental pollution. Agronomic management practices on the use of manure may transform the target from a waste to a resource product. Experiments performed on comparison of manure with standard chemical fertilizers (CF) were studied under a double cropping per year regime (alfalfa, model I; Italian ryegrass-corn, model II; barley-seed sorghum, model III; and horse-bean-silage sorghum, model IV). The total amount of manure applied in the annual forage crops of the model II, III and IV was 158, 140 and 80 m3 ha−1, respectively. The manure applied to soil by broadcast and injection procedure provides an amount of nitrogen equal to that supplied by CF. The effect of manure applications on animal feeding production and biochemical soil characteristics was related to the models. The weather condition and manures and CF showed small interaction among treatments. The number of MFU ha−1 of biomass crop gross product produced in autumn and spring sowing models under manure applications was 11,769, 20,525, 11,342, 21,397 in models I through IV, respectively. The reduction of MFU ha−1 under CF ranges from 10.7% to 13.2% those of the manure models. The effect of manure on organic carbon and total nitrogen of topsoil, compared to model I, stressed the parameters as CF whose amount was higher in models II and III than model IV. In term of percentage the organic carbon and total nitrogen of model I and treatment with manure was reduced by about 18.5 and 21.9% in model II and model III and 8.8 and 6.3% in model IV, respectively. Manure management may substitute CF without reducing gross production and sustainability of cropping systems, thus allowing the opportunity to recycle the waste product for animal forage feeding

Influence of agronomic factors on the relationship between forage production and seed yield in perennial forage grasses and legumes in a Mediterranean environment

Accessions (varieties and ecotype) of perennial legumes, lucerne (cv Equipe and ecotype Romagnola), sulla (cvs Bellante and Sant'Omero) and sainfoin (cvs Zeus and Vala), and grasses, tall fescue (cvs Tanit and Sibilla), cocksfoot (cvs Dora and Cesarina) and perennial ryegrass (cvs Vejo and Pamir) were investigated for performance in a typical Mediterranean environment (Foggia, southern Italy). The accessions were evaluated for yield potential in seed and forage dry matter and the relationship between yield component traits under rainfed and two irrigation treatments and forage harvest management was investigated. The traits investigated were forage production (dry matter, stem density and plant height) and seed yield (seed yield, 1 000 seed weight, stem density and seeds per stem). The results showed a significant difference among traits across the treatments. Early flowering of the accessions is the characteristic able to increase dry matter and seed yield in grass and legume species. Dry matter of the first harvest of the year was weakly influenced by irrigation treatments. The species and accessions showed different adaptability to exploit the forage and seed yield potential in the weather conditions under study. Irrigation treatment with a higher level of water application increased positively, in grasses and legumes, the correlation dry matter with stems per m2 of the sward and negatively the correlation seed yield with seed weight in grasses and positively with stem density in legumes. Irrigation was the main agronomic factor which resulted in an ability to increase the period of crop utilisation, the seed yield, and to stabilise seed production in Mediterranean areas. (© Inra/Elsevier, Paris.)Influence de facteurs agronomiques sur la relation entre la production de fourrage et le rendement en grain chez les graminées pérennes et les légumineuses fourragères dans un environnement méditerranéen. Différentes populations (écotypes et variétés) appartenant aux espèces légumineuses pérennes suivantes : luzerne (cv Équipe et écotype Romagnola), sainfoin d'Italie (cv Bellante et Sant' Omero) et sainfoin (cv Zeus et Vala) et aux graminées suivantes : fétuque élevée (cv Tanit et Sibilla), dactyle (cv Dora et Cesarina) et ray-grass anglais (cv Vejo et Pamir) ont été étudiées pour leur performance en milieu méditerranéen (Foggia, Italie du Sud). L'effet de différents régimes hydriques et des rythmes d'exploitation sur le potentiel productif en grains et en fourrage et sur les composantes du rendement a été étudié. Les caractères considerés pour la production de fourrage ont été la matière sèche totale, la densité des tiges et la hauteur de la plante et, pour la production de semences, le rendement en grain, le poids de 1 000 grains, la densité des tiges et le poids des grains par tige. Les résultats ont montré des effets significatifs des traitements sur les caractères considérés. La précocité de floraison, en particulier, est corrélée au rendement en fourrage et en grain aussi bien chez les légumineuses que chez les graminées. L'effet des régimes hydriques sur la première coupe de l'année a été faible. Les espèces et populations étudiées ont montré un degré différent d'adaptation à exploiter leur potentiel productif en milieu méditerranéen. Au niveau le plus élevé d'irrigation, la corrélation entre production de matière sèche et densité des tiges est augmentée pour les légumineuses et pour les graminées. La corrélation entre production totale et poids unitaire de la graine est négative quand augmente la quantité d'eau d'irrigation pour les graminées. Dans le cas des légumineuses, un effet positif du niveau d'irrigation sur la production de grains et la densité des tiges est observé. L'irrigation s'est avéré le facteur agronomique le plus important pour étendre la période d'utilisation de la culture et pour augmenter et rendre plus stable la production de semences en milieu méditerranéen. (© Inra/Elsevier, Paris.

Irrigation treatments, water use efficiency and crop sustainability in cereal-forage rotations in Mediterranean environment

Agricultural systems based on crop rotation are beneficial to crop sustainability and productivity. Wheat-forage rotations combined with irrigation are the agronomic techniques best able to exploit Mediterranean environmental conditions. This paper describes a long-term field trial to ascertain the effect of combined irrigation and durum wheat-forage rotations on crop yield and soil chemical properties. The two forage crops: annual grass-clover winter binary mixture and perennial lucerne were carried out through 1991-2008 under rainfed and irrigated treatments. The experiments were used to highlight the effect of irrigation and wheat-forage crop rotations on water use efficiency (WUE) and sustainability of organic matter (OM) in topsoil. Irrigation increased the dry matter (DM) of annual binary mixture and lucerne by 49.1% and 66.9%, respectively. Continuous wheat rotation reduced seed yield (SY), stability of production, and crude protein (CP) characteristics of kernel and OM in topsoil. The yearly gain in wheat after forage crops was 0.04 t (ha yr)-1 under rainfed and 0.07 t (ha yr)-1 under irrigation treatments. The CP and soil OM of wheat forage crops rotations, compared with those of continuous wheat under rainfed and irrigated was a 0.8 and 0.5 % increase in CP and 5.1 and 4.4 in OM, respectively. The rotations of annual grass-clover winter binary mixture and lucerne meadow under both irrigated treatments increased the OM over continuous wheat (9.3 % and 8.5 in annual grass-clover winter binary mixture and 12.5 and 9.5 lucerne meadow under rainfed and irrigation, respectively). Irrigation reduced the impact of weather on crop growing, reducing water use efficiency (mean over rotations) for DM production (15.5 in meadow and 17.5 in annual grass-clover winter binary mixture [L water (kg DM)-1]) and wheat SY. However, the agronomic benefits achieved by forage crops in topsoil are exhausted after three years of continuous wheat rotation

Performances of legume-grass mixtures under different cutting managements in mediterranean environments

Annual forage crops have great importance for sustaining animal production in southern Italy. Knowledge of the performance of legume-grass associations under management similar to systems encountered in farm practice is essential for their effective exploitation of the available environmental resources. The purpose of this investigation was to estimate the effects of five cutting managements on the productivity and botanical composition of ten annual fodder crop mixtures in two Mediterranean environments. Ten ternary combinations of one grass (Avena sativa L., oat and Lolium multiflorum Lam., Italian ryegrass), one clover (Trifolium alexandrinum L., berseem; Trifolium incarnatum L., crimson and Trifolium squarrosum L., squarrosum) or burr medic (Medicago polymorpha L.) and common vetch (Vicia sativa L.) were compared in a field trial (split-plot design, 3 replicates) in two locations (Cagliari and Foggia, Italy) during the 2000-2001 growing season. The cutting treatments included a winter grazing simulation (G), a cutting only regime at early (EF) or late flowering (F) of legumes and a combination of treatments (GEF and GF). Plant density (no. m-2) prior to cutting, dry matter yield (g m-2) and botanical composition (%) were evaluated. Considerable differences were observed in the harvestable dry matter yields of mixtures among cutting treatments in both localities, with treatment F showing the higher values (787.1 and 415.7 g m-2 for Cagliari and Foggia, respectively). The forage species were able to compete and establish good growth during their initial phase in both localities. However, the botanical composition between the two sites differed considerably after the winter period. Particularly, at Foggia, grass dominance was a permanent feature of all treatments, and all the mixtures contained about 84% of grass. Italian ryegrass was the most representative species under all treatments in both sites. Mixtures with Italian ryegrass, crimson or berseem clovers and vetch showed higher adaptability to cutting treatments particularly at Cagliari. Our results showed that the forage species associations studied can be grown successfully under simulated grazing treatment during the winter season and under the double land-use system (integrated grazing and cutting) adopted at Cagliari. These treatments provide a reasonably economical means of assessing mixtures under diverse farming conditions. However, as a fraction of the plant population in swards of this experiment diminished over time, particularly at one site, the optimum of species present in these forage species associations have yet to be determined