Abstract
The high efficiency of sunflowers in extracting water from the soil under water stress conditions is a factor that promotes sunflower cultivation in the offseason. Therefore, sunflowers have been intercropped with grasses of the Brachiaria genus in crop-livestock integration systems. However, little is known of sowing methods for intercropping; thus, the present study aimed to assess sunflower agronomic traits and the production and nutritional characteristics of Paiaguas palisadegrass under different forage systems in the offseason in the midwest region of Brazil. The experiment was conducted at the Federal Institute of Goias (Instituto Federal Goiano), Rio Verde Campus in a randomized block experimental design with four replicates. The treatments consisted of the following forage systems: sunflower monocropped; Paiaguas palisadegrass monocropped; sunflower rows intercropped with Paiaguas palisadegrass; sunflower inter-row intercropped with Paiaguas palisadegrass; and sunflower oversown and intercropped with Paiaguas palisadegrass. The results show that the sunflower rows intercropped with Paiaguas palisadegrass negatively affect the agronomic traits of sunflower; thus, inter-row sowing and oversowing are recommended. Sowing Paiaguas palisadegrass with oversown sunflower for forage production is hampered by intercropping and shows low forage production. In turn, the intercropped sowing method had no effect on the nutritional characteristics of the produced forage. Intercropping sunflowers with Paiaguas palisadegrass in the offseason has the potential to provide a promising cropping method for the production of achenes and after harvest enables the availability of forage with good nutritional value for use in the offseason in the midwest region of Brazil.
Highlights
From an agricultural perspective, the sunflower crop has desirable traits, including a short cycle, high quality and good oil yield (CASTRO; FARIAS, 2005)
The experimental design consisted of randomized blocks with four replicates and used the following forage systems: sunflower monocropped; Paiaguas palisadegrass monocropped; sunflower row-intercropped with Paiaguas palisadegrass; sunflower inter-row intercropped with Paiaguas palisadegrass; and sunflower oversown and intercropped with Paiaguas palisadegrass
Harvest was performed manually at 130 days after the emergence (DAE) at the time when the plants reached the physiological maturity stage, and the following parameters were assessed in the useful area of the plot at harvest: head diameter was measured in ten randomly chosen plants; dry mass yield from the stem and leaf collection from all plot plants was determined by placing the plant material in an oven at 55 oC until a constant mass was reached, with the dry weight converted to kg ha-1; 1000-achene mass was determined by weighing 1000 achenes and was expressed in grams, with the moisture adjusted to 13%; and achene productivity was determined by threshing the heads, weighing the achenes, adjusting the moisture to 13% and converting the data to kg ha-1
Summary
The sunflower crop has desirable traits, including a short cycle, high quality and good oil yield (CASTRO; FARIAS, 2005). The high efficiency of sunflowers in extracting water from the soil under water stress conditions and their tolerance to a wide temperature range without noticeable effects on production are factors that promote sunflower cultivation in the offseason (BRIGHENTI et al, 2008) Another key factor for sunflower cultivation in the offseason is the choice of achene for oil production, which has a higher market value than soybean oil for human nutrition and decreases the idleness of beneficiary industries, optimizing the use of land, machinery and manpower (CAPONE et al, 2011).
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