Long-term field experiments in Sweden – what are they designed to study and what could they be used for?

Abstract

Long-term field experiments (LTEs) have proven a useful resource when assessing the impact of different management practices on soil, water and production. Departments at the Faculty of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences run more than forty long-term field experiments. The oldest LTEs typically investigate the effect of cropping systems, crop rotations and fertiliser regimes on yield and soil fertility. More recent experiments concentrate on making efficient use of soil resources and on environmental effects of crop production and different management practices. In 2007 a Management Board was formed to encourage Departments to re-evaluate their existing LTEs and even start new field experiments that are destined to become long-term. The new LTEs should serve as research platforms and be useful for several disciplines. In this paper we reflect on the present LTEs and discuss how useful they are, and the need for new LTEs

Keywords

Cropping system; crop rotation; soil fertility

Published in

Aspects of Applied Biology
2011, volume: 113, pages: 75-85
Publisher: Association of Applied Biologists

Conference

Making Crop Rotations Fit for the Future

SLU Authors

• Bergkvist, Göran

  • Department of Crop Production Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Öborn, Ingrid

  • Department of Crop Production Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Agricultural Science

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/36302