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Conference paper2015

Nitrogen fertiliser dose influence the effect of two year rotational leys with grass or clover- grass on other crops in the rotation

Bergkvist, Göran; Båth, Birgitta

Abstract

Rotational leys increase yields of subsequent crops. The investigation of long term effects of repeated use of rotational leys in long-term field experiments (LTEs) is often confounded with the effects of animal manure. We used three LTEs situated in southern Sweden to investigate the importance of rotational leys, ley composition and fertiliser regime on grain yield of oats grown as the third crop after incorporation of the leys. We found that 2-year clover/grass and grass leys in 6 year rotations increased yield of oats. At low N regimes, clover/grass leys increase yields more than pure grass leys, but they have similar effect on oats yield when both the grass ley and the oats is fertilised with high doses of N fertiliser. The positive effect of leys on oats yields does not increase continuously over time.

Keywords

cropping system, clover/grass, rotational ley, long term experiments

Published in

Aspects of Applied Biology
2015, Volume: 128, pages: 133-139
Publisher: the Association of Applied Biologists

Conference

Valuing long-term sites and experiments for agriculture and ecology. Asociation of Applied Biologists conference in Newcastle 26-27 May 2015. Aspects of Applied Biology 128.