Corn yield, forage production and quality affected by methods of intercropping corn and Panicum maximum

Rodrigo Estevam Munhoz De Almeida,José Laércio Favarin,Bruno Cocco Lago,Caio Macret Gomes,Silas Maciel De Oliveira,Clovis Pierozan Junior

doi:10.1590/s0100-204x2017000300004

Abstract

Abstract: The objective of this work was to evaluate methods of intercropping corn and Panicum spp. forages and their effects on corn yield and forage development. Two experiments with Panicum spp. were conducted, one with 'Tanzania' and other with 'Massai' in the municipality of Piracicaba, in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, in the 2012/2013 growing season. In both experiments, the treatments were: broadcast seeding of Panicum spp. at the same time of corn sowing; corn with Panicum spp. between rows; Panicum spp. sown with fertilizer; Panicum spp. sown between corn rows after corn establishment; broadcast seeding of Panicum spp. after corn establishment; and sole corn sowing. For corn, leaf nitrogen content, ear height, and grain yield were evaluated. For Panicum spp. cultivars, height, dry mass, tiller density, and leaf:stem ratio were evaluated. The intercropping establishment methods used do not affect corn growth, grain yield, and N leaf content. The seeding of both cultivars of Panicum spp. when corn plants had four expanded leaves reduces forage dry mass production and increases the leaf:stem ratio. The Panicum spp. broadcast method, performed after corn was established, does not allow appropriate establishment, with few plants in the area.

Highlights

Integrated crop-livestock system (ICL) attends the guidelines to obtain a sustainable management of the crop and animal production
Panicum spp. have a larger forage production compared to Urochloa species (Silva et al, 2016)
This is an important feature to animal grazing after corn harvest in ICL systems, since a larger number of animals can graze the field

Summary

Introduction

Integrated crop-livestock system (ICL) attends the guidelines to obtain a sustainable management of the crop and animal production. Most farms in South America have cultivated the fields with annual crops for years, moved on to intercropping between maize and tropical grass (Borgui et al, 2013). After the harvest of the annual crop, fields can be grazed by the livestock (Crusciol et al, 2015). Panicum spp. have a larger forage production compared to Urochloa species (Silva et al, 2016). This is an important feature to animal grazing after corn harvest in ICL systems, since a larger number of animals can graze the field. If Panicum spp. species were not suppressed by corn, surely corn grain yield would be lower at intercropping

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