EFFECT OF THE NITROGEN AND MAGNESIUM FERTILISATION ON YIELD AND ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY OF WINTER TRITICALE PRODUCTION

Abstract

The present investigations were undertaken, in which the winter triticale cultivar Twingo was examined, with the aim of analyzing production output, expressed by grain yield and its structure, as affected by different levels of nitrogen and magnesium fertilisation and assess and compare the economic efficiency of production technologies. This research encompassed the results of a three-year (2013-2015) field experiment conducted at the Research Station in Tomaszkowo near Olsztyn, Poland. The experiment was set up in a random, split-plot design, with four replications. The first order factor was nitrogen fertilisation (kg ha-1): 30, 60, 90, 120 and 150. The second order factor was the level of magnesium fertilisation (kg ha-1): 0 and 5 kg MgSO4∙7H2O. Statistical analysis of the results showed that the grain yield was significantly affected by the year of the trial, nitrogen and magnesium fertilisation, interaction of the first and second factors was not proven. The method based on the standard gross margin (SGM) was used for the economic evaluation of the three production technology differentiated costs levels. Three technologies with the highest, medium and lowest average yields were selected to the comparison. Differences in compared technologies concerned to the date and dose of nitrogen and magnesium fertilisation. Results showed, that increasing intensity of winter triticale technology in the field trial, caused the higher financial yield value of winter triticale, as well as direct costs and direct surplus. The direct surplus was higher by 24.4% between the lowest and the highest winter triticale technologies. The highest yield technology was characterized by the highest profitability.