Abstract
Cropping systems in American agriculture are highly successful since World War II, but have become highly specialized, standardized, and simplified to meet the demands of an industrialized food system. Minimal attention has been given to the efficient exploitation of crop diversity and the synergistic and/or antagonistic relationships of crops in crop sequences. Objectives of our research were to determine if previous crop sequences have long-term benefits and/or drawbacks on spring wheat seed yield, seed N concentration, and seed precipitation-use efficiency in the semiarid northern Great Plains, USA. Research was conducted 6 km southwest of Mandan, ND using a 10 × 10 crop matrix technique as a research tool to evaluate multiple crop sequence effects on spring wheat (triticum aestivum L.) production in 2004 and 2005. Spring wheat production risks can be mitigated when second year crop residue was dry pea (Pisium sativum L.) averaged over all first year crop residues. When compared to spring wheat as second year crop residue in the dry year of 2004, dry pea as the second year residue crop resulted in a 30% spring wheat seed yield increase. Sustainable cropping systems need to use precipitation efficiently for crop production, especially during below average precipitation years like 2004. Precipitation use efficiency average over all treatments, during the below average precipitation year was 23% greater than the above average precipitation year of 2005. Diversifying crops in cropping systems improves production efficiencies and resilience of agricultural systems.
Highlights
American agriculture represents a highly productive enterprise, producing bountiful harvest for a growing population
Small letters in the column that are different indicate significance in spring wheat seed yields as influenced by first year crop residues at p ≤ 0.05 according to Least Significant Difference (LSD). bCapital letters in the row that are different indicate significance in spring wheat seed yields as influenced by second year crop residues at p ≤ 0.05 according to LSD. cCapital letters for spring wheat seed yield averaged across all second year crop residues; average numbers followed by different letters are significant at p ≤ 0.05 according to LSD. dSmall letters for spring wheat seed yield averaged across all first year crop residues; average numbers followed by different letters and significant at p ≤ 0.05 according to LSD
Capital letters in the row that are different indicate significance in spring wheat seed N concentration as influenced by second year crop residues at p ≤ 0.05 according to LSD. cCapital letters for spring wheat seed N concentration averaged across all second year crop residues; average numbers followed by different letters are significant at p ≤ 0.05 according to LSD. dSmall letters for spring wheat seed N concentration averaged across all first year crop residues; average numbers followed by different letters are significant at p ≤ 0.05 according to LSD
Summary
American agriculture represents a highly productive enterprise, producing bountiful harvest for a growing population. Cropping systems since World War II have become highly specialized, standardized, and simplified to meet increasing demands of the industrialized food system [1,2] Many of these cropping systems are approaching monoculture systems that need to incorporate technological advances, high fossil fuel based inputs, and genetic engineering to remain sustainable. Settlers brought their tillage tools and annual cropping systems from the eastern U.S to the northern Great Plains during the late 1890’s and early 1900’s They soon learned that eastern U.S cultural practices and cropping systems resulted in crop failure during dry periods and were not resilient, which led to the development of the wheatfallow cropping systems to provide short-term production sustainability during dry years. Objectives of our research were to determine if previous crop sequences have long-term benefits and/or drawbacks on spring wheat seed yield, seed N concentration, and seed precipitation-use efficiency in the northern Great Plains
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