Abstract
Crop-livestock integrated systems have been identified as an excellent option to use land efficiently. This study investigates how the intercropping between corn and three palisade grass cultivars affects the species productivity and the physiological and structural characteristics of swards grazed under 95% light interception under mob stocking. Evaluations were performed before corn harvest and during three grazing cycles. Similarity between the cultivars on the proportion of corn morphological components has shown that none of the studied forage plants had influence on the growth of corn. The crop-livestock integrated system with corn modified the proportion of palisade grass cultivars’ morphological components, promoting the development of Xaraes cultivar. In the pre-grazing in the grazing cycles, considering 95% of light interception the Xaraes cultivar showed higher height (0.47 m) compared with Marandu (0.37 m) and similar to Piata (0.42 m). Forage density was higher in the second grazing cycle only when the forage mass was also greater with greater contribution of both leaves and stems compared to the other cycles. Mass of leaves, stems and dead material was similar between the cultivars both pre- and post-grazing. The corn and forage intercropping did not affect the growth and development of palisade grass pastures and it is a viable alternative for the crop-livestock integrated system. Corn production is not affected by the palisade grass cultivars but production can be affected by environmental conditions mainly rainfall. The Marandu, Xaraes and Piata cultivars can be recommended for integration farming system in crop-livestock integrated system and are recommended for sward managed under 95% light interception and 15 cm high residue.
Highlights
The efficient use of natural resources requires intensifying land use, which is a good alternative to minimize the environmental stress brought by the opening of new areas for agricultural production
Considering this fact and the importance of the study that other Brachiaria cultivars give better opportunity for animal production, the present study investigates how the intercropping between corn and three palisade grass cultivars affects species productivity and the physiological and structural characteristics of swards grazed under 95% light interception in intermittent stocking
No significant effects (P > 0.05) were detected for corn yield, plant and ear insertion heights and the percentage of husked ears between treatments (Table 2). These results demonstrate that palisade grass cultivars did not affect the corn development, and probably there was no competition between species studied
Summary
The efficient use of natural resources requires intensifying land use, which is a good alternative to minimize the environmental stress brought by the opening of new areas for agricultural production. [7] highlighted some problems related with Marandu grass intercropping, which could make its cultivation unfeasible, such as seasonality, low efficiency of crop control with glyphosate herbicide, and the cultivar slowness to enter senescence The latter implies that the ideal conditions for planting succession crops are met only from 21 to 28 days after herbicide application, contributing to late sowing. It is necessary to study grazed pastures implanted from CLIS since most of the researches are made with cut and instead of grazing Considering this fact and the importance of the study that other Brachiaria cultivars give better opportunity for animal production, the present study investigates how the intercropping between corn and three palisade grass cultivars affects species productivity and the physiological and structural characteristics of swards grazed under 95% light interception in intermittent stocking
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