Abstract
Adequate nutrition is essential for crop growth, production, and profit potential for farmers, but chemical fertilizer costs alone can constitute a greater portion of the total variable costs for wheat and canola. The present study evaluated seven cropping treatments (CT) in a 3-year crop rotation under two different soil types. Five of the CTs consisted of a one-time application (year 1) of beef cattle manure, and growing of cover crop cocktails (CCC) for annual pasture, swath grazing, green manure, and green feed. Canola and wheat were respectively grown in years 2 and 3 of the 3-year crop rotation. In year 2, CTs impacted canola seed yield and seed protein (only at site 2). Wheat had similar protein content in year 3 at both sites. At both sites, the application of beef cattle manure in year 1 seemed to encourage higher plant tissue P at the expense of plant tissue Zn. Overall, beef cattle manure and CCCs based CTs improved soil N, P, and K, but beef cattle manure application consistently improved crop yield and significantly reduced the need for additional in-organic fertilizer application to canola and wheat in subsequent years.
Highlights
The study of the environmental impacts of crops, the reduced costs of production, and the balanced use of fertilization are among the main objectives of modern agriculture (Yousaf et al, 2016)
Adequate nutrition is essential for crop growth, production, and profit potential for farmers, but chemical fertilizer costs alone can constitute a greater portion of the total variable costs for wheat and canola
In year 2, at site 1, only canola plant tissue P, Ca, and Zn of the thirteen minerals (N, P, K, Ca, Mg, S, Zn, Mn, Fe, Cu, B, Al, Na) were analyzed for here in the present study showed significant differences for the cropping treatments (CT) investigated, while no canola plant tissue was impacted at site 2
Summary
The study of the environmental impacts of crops, the reduced costs of production, and the balanced use of fertilization are among the main objectives of modern agriculture (Yousaf et al, 2016). In eastern Alberta, initial evaluations of CCCs showed the potential of CCCs to provide a reduction in soil compaction, increased weed suppression and aggregation formation for the cropping season, as well as improved biological activity (CARA, 2016), all of which will have positive impacts on crop production and overall farm profits. This further shows the need for a multifunctional low-input cropping system that includes CCCs. The benefits of CCCs are based on the multifunctional action of each crop species in the blend interacting with the soil attributes and stimulating the soil’s biological activity (Barot et al, 2017)
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