Abstract
ABSTRACT The response of biomass flow components of forage from the interaction between fertigation with wastewater and cutting height during the year is little known. The objective of this work was to verify the responses of morphogenic and structural characteristics of Urochloa brizantha as a function of fertigation application strategies with sewage treatment plant effluent (TSE), complemented with urea (U), associated with harvest with two plant heights during the dry and rainy periods. The forage cutting heights were 30 cm (H1) and 40 cm (H2), and nitrogen fertilization doses were 9.1 (D1), 12.1 (D2), 22.5 (D3), 26.6 (D4), and 34.0 (D5) kg of N per Mg−1 of dry matter (DM) produced, applied by TSE via fertigation, plus 7.5 kg N per Mg−1 of DM produced, applied in the form of urea by cover in all treatments. Factor analyses for the dry and rainy periods identified two processes that correspond to forage mass growth and leaf development. Analysis of variance showed that treatments D5H2 and D5H1 presented superior responses over the other treatments, in the dry, and rainy periods. The treatment D5H2 stood out in the process of forage mass growth, and D5H1 in leaf development.
Highlights
Pastures of the genus Urochloa are spread throughout the tropics, due to the varied growth according to habitat (Cezário et al, 2015)
Among the different species of forage plants cultivated in Brazil, one that stands out is Urochloa brizantha, which, besides being the most cultivated in the country, has the largest volume of seeds destined for export (Silva et al, 2014)
The experimental design was in randomized blocks with a subdivided plot, with a dose of nitrogen fertilization in the plot and cutting height in the subplot, in four replications, totaling 40 experimental units, each with an area of 4.8 m2 (2.4 x 2 m) (Figure 1)
Summary
Pastures of the genus Urochloa are spread throughout the tropics, due to the varied growth according to habitat (Cezário et al, 2015). The main limitation on the production of tropical forages in regions whose winter is characteristically dry and cold is irregular production with good nutritional value during the year, which is determined by limiting air temperature, water, and luminosity during winter. Because production is irregular at this time of year, cattle ranchers commonly do not use fertilizers, especially those with nitrogen sources, because of low water availability, resulting in low soil fertility. The supply of nutrients through fertilizer application is important in the growth of forages. Nitrogen (N) is the most important nutrient to maximize and maintain the dry mass productivity of forage plants (Galindo et al, 2017), provided that other production factors are not limiting (Marchetti et al, 2018)
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