Abstract
abstract The production trends of commercial willow plantations for bioenergy in Southern andCentral Sweden were studied for the period 1986e2000 based on harvest records of the firstcuttingcycleaftertheestablishmentof1512plantations.Thetrendsweremodelledbyusinga mixed model in order to include the variability of management options by the growers,whichweregroupedintofourclassesaccordingtotheirperformance.Thespatialvariabilityoftheproductivityisincludedusinganagro-climaticindexbasedontheofficialestimatesofoat yields. Results of the study show average yield increments of 2.06 odt ha yr1 1 perdecade.Areaswithhighproductivityhavesignificantlyincreasedtheyieldsofwillowduringthe period studied, from 1.3 to 5.4 odt ha 1 yr 1 . Regarding management, the best growersgroup shows a national average increment of 2.75 odt ha yr1 1 per decade, and the latestplantingsreach anaverageof6odt ha .Thisgroupisformedbyfarmerswithprevious1 yr 1experience growing willow, who tend to have significantly higher yields. In addition, expe-riencedfarmersincreasedtheiryieldsanaverageof0.34odtha 1
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