Water use efficiency of a mixed cropping system of corn with grasses

Abstract

A new cropping system of corn mixed with grasses was tried to make full and efficient use of water and to ease environmental problems such as soil erosion by water and wind in grain and forage feed production practices. Field experiments were conducted to investigate the water use efficiency under this mixture cropping system. Six treatments with two replicates were arranged as: bare field, corn only, rye only, alfalfa only, rye–corn mixture and alfalfa–corn mixture. Lysimeters were used to measure different components of water consumption in the crop fields for water use efficiency estimation. From the yields and water consumption of crops under different treatments, combined water use efficiency of corn and grasses were estimated. The results showed that WUEs in the mixed cropping fields of corn–grasses were much higher than those in the fields where only corn or grass were grown. Averaged WUE was 3.71 kg/m3 from the corn and rye mixture fields, 30% higher than that from the plots where only corn or rye were grown. Averaged WUE was 4.55 kg/m3 from the alfalfa and corn mixture fields, 60% higher than that from the fields where only corn or alfalfa were grown. Under the same conditions of irrigation, yields from the rye and corn mixture plots increased by 33%, as compared with those from fields where only corn or rye were grown. The yields from alfalfa and corn mixture fields were 61% higher than those from fields where only corn or alfalfa were grown. The experimental results also indicated that corn and alfalfa mixture cropping is better than a corn–rye mixture system.