• Authors:
    • Bobrecka-Jamro, D.
    • Tobiasz-Salach, R.
  • Source: Annales Universitatis Mariae Curie-Skodowska
  • Volume: 64
  • Issue: 1
  • Year: 2009
  • Summary: The results of field experiments undertaken during 2004-2006 at the research station in Krasne near Rzeszow are presented in the study paper. The study covered the influence of foliar fertilization with compound fertilizers on the yield and chemical composition of grains of husk free oats cultivated on average soils. The obtained results demonstrated that the response of the varieties to foliar fertilization was not uniform. Fertilization with Adob Mn as well as Adob Cu resulted in yield drops by 5.1% in Akt variety. As regards the Polar variety, all applied types of fertilizer resulted in increased yields with the highest of 19%, which was due to Adob Cu application. Both Basfoliar 36 Extra and Adob Mn application resulted in increases in the weight of 1000 grains by 3.5% and 1.18%, respectively. An influence of foliar fertilization on the content of protein, fat, fibre, and volatile non-nitrogen compounds in oats grains was not observed. Increases in ash content of husk free oat grains were due solely to Adob Mn fertilization. All applied fertilizer types led to decreases in protein content while increasing digestible fat content for pigs. Foliar fertilization led to increased outputs of protein, fat as well as energy value of yields from a unit land area.
  • Authors:
    • Kovacs, I.
    • Lantos, C.
    • Pauk, J.
    • Cseuz, L.
  • Source: Cereal Research Communications
  • Volume: 37
  • Issue: Suppl. 1
  • Year: 2009
  • Summary: Drought tolerance of wheat was tested by a mobile automatic rain shelter (MARS) in a conventional pedigree breeding program of Cereal Research Non-Profit Ltd. Co. (CRC) in Szeged. The MARS, parallel with ideal water supply gives a good chance for field testing of relatively high number of genotypes for drought tolerance. Using the automatic rain shelter which was installed in 2006, advanced lines of winter wheat could be tested for tolerance to water shortages under irrigated (control treatment) and under dry conditions. Withdrawal of water caused significant effects on yield and yield components and raised the canopy temperature of the genotypes tested. We have developed a novel breeding system by which we can routinely select for drought resistance. The methods applied can easily be incorporated into our working pedigree breeding system.
  • Authors:
    • Lafond, G.
    • Gan, Y.
    • Brandt, S.
    • McConkey, B.
    • Cutforth, H.
    • Angadi, S.
    • Judiesch, D.
  • Source: Canadian Journal of Plant Science
  • Volume: 89
  • Issue: 3
  • Year: 2009
  • Summary: Canola is a viable crop when grown under fallow in the semiarid prairie, but is also grown in longer rotations, most often no-till seeded into standing stubble. Selecting the proper N fertilizer rate is a very challenging production decision, but most of the available nitrogen response for canola has been derived for the more subhumid parts of the Canadian prairies. We developed simple quadratic equations to describe the yield relationship for stubble-seeded open-pollinated and hybrid canola in the semiarid Canadian prairie. These relationships indicate that hybrid canola produced higher grain yields at all fertilizer rates and had optimum N fertilizer rates about 50% higher than those for open-pollinated canola.
  • Authors:
    • Basnyat, P.
    • Liu, P.
    • Lemke, R.
    • Janzen, H.
    • Campbell, A.
    • Gan, T.
    • McDonald, C. L.
  • Source: Canadian Journal of Plant Science
  • Volume: 89
  • Issue: 5
  • Year: 2009
  • Summary: Crop roots transport water and nutrients to the plants, produce nutrients when they decompose in soil, and provide organic C to facilitate the process of C sequestration in the soil. Many studies on these subjects have been published for cereal crops, but little is known for oilseed and pulse crops. This study was conducted at Swift Current, Saskatchewan, in 2006 and 2007 to characterize the root growth and distribution profile in soil for selected oilseed and pulse crops. Three oilseed [canola ( Brassica napus L.), mustard ( Brassica juncea L.), flax ( Linum usitatissimum L.)], three pulse crops [chickpea ( Cicer arietinum L), dry pea ( Pisum sativum L.) lentil ( Lens culinaris Medik.)], and spring wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.) were grown in 100 cm deep * 15 cm diameter lysimeters pushed into a silt loam soil. Crops were studied under rainfed and irrigated conditions. Lysimeters were removed from the field and sampled for above-ground (AG) and root mass at different depths at five growth stages. Root mass was highest for canola (1470 kg ha -1) and wheat (1311 kg ha -1), followed by mustard (893 kg ha -1) and chickpea (848 kg ha -1), and was lowest for dry pea (524 kg ha -1) and flax (440 kg ha -1). The root mass of oilseeds and pulses reached a maximum between late-flowering and late-pod stages and then decreased to maturity, while wheat root mass decreased to maturity after reaching a maximum at boot stage. On average, about 77 to 85% of the root mass was located in the 0-40 cm depth. Canola, mustard, and wheat rooted to 100 cm, while the pulses and flax had only 4 to 7% of the root mass beyond the 60 cm depth. Irrigation only increased root mass in the 0-20 cm depth. Roots developed more rapidly than AG biomass initially, but the ratio of root biomass to AG biomass decreased with plant maturity. At maturity, the ratio of root biomass to AG biomass was 0.11 for dry pea, and between 0.20 and 0.22 for the other crops tested. Our findings on rooting depths and root mass distribution in the soil profile should be useful for modelling water and nutrient uptake by crops, estimating C inputs into soil from roots, and developing diverse cropping systems with cereals, oilseeds and pulses for semiarid environments.
  • Authors:
    • Berzy, T.
    • Hegyi, Z.
  • Source: Cereal Research Communications
  • Volume: 37
  • Issue: Suppl. 1
  • Year: 2009
  • Summary: If maize production is to be successful it is essential to be clear about the intended end-use and the farm conditions in order to make a wise choice of variety and technology. Recommendations on the end-use of the varieties can only be made based on knowledge of both yield levels and chemical quality. A total of 96 hybrids from four FAO maturity groups were examined at four locations in 2008 in order to analyse their yield and quality and to determine the effect of ecological factors on a number of parameters. The highest yield averages were recorded for hybrids in the FAO 300 group (12.95 t ha -1) at locations with the highest rainfall (Debrecen). In Debrecen and Iregszemcse the plants were able to develop a second ear, thus increasing the yield average (12.31 t ha -1, 11.75 t ha -1). In Szarvas irrigation helped to achieve good yields and reduce drought damage (10.97 t ha -1), while in Martonvasar, although rainfall sums were adequate, the uneven distribution and atmospheric drought led to lower yields (9.65 t ha -1). In this experiment, early hybrids (FAO, 200, FAO 300) had the best yield stability. The starch content of the grain exhibited a close correlation with the yield average. The greatest starch incorporation was recorded for FAO 300 hybrids (72.86%). The expected negative correlation between starch content and protein/oil content was observed. The FAO 200 hybrids had the highest protein and oil contents (9.70 and 3.89%), which gradually declined at later maturity dates (FAO 500: 9.14 and 3.51%). The thousand-kernel mass and the length of the main ear were closely correlated with the maturity date, being lowest for the earliest hybrids (326.39 g, 18.91 cm) and highest in the latest group (346.91 g, 19.74 cm). For protein and oil content, genetic differences between the hybrids were greater (1.50, 1.00%) than between locations (0.97, 0.82%), while in the case of starch the latter caused greater differences (2.84, 4.06%).
  • Authors:
    • Wang, H.
    • Schoenau, J. J.
    • Brandt, S.
    • Lafond, G.
    • Malhi, S. S.
    • Mooleki, S. P.
    • Lemke, R. L.
    • Thavarajah, D.
    • Hultgreen, G.
    • May, W. E.
  • Source: Canadian Journal of Plant Science
  • Volume: 89
  • Issue: 1
  • Year: 2009
  • Summary: No-till (NT) requires all fertilizer nutrients to be applied during planting, but high rates of fertilizer nitrogen (N) in close proximity to the seed can negatively affect seedling development; therefore, different placement technologies have been developed to place seed and N in a single operation while maintaining an adequate separation between them. We conducted a 3-yr field study (2000 to 2002) at four sites in Saskatchewan. The objective was to determine the effects of N fertilizer form [urea (U) and anhydrous ammonia (AA)], placement [broadcast, side-band (SB) and mid-row band (MRB)], timing (fall vs. spring), rate (0 to 90 or 120 kg N ha -1), and P fertilizer placement on yield, seed protein content and N uptake in canola. The N fertilizer managements had no significant effect on crop emergence. Yield, seed protein concentration and N uptake increased with increasing N fertilizer rate. Seed protein was significantly higher on SB compared with MRB and on U compared with AA. Seed yield and seed and straw N uptake were higher when U was SB compared with broadcast. Plant density was higher when P was placed in SB rather than with the seed, but the reverse was true for seed yield and seed N uptake.
  • Authors:
    • He, J. -S.
    • Tan, K.
    • Rao, S.
    • Hu, H. F.
    • Ji, C. J.
    • Chen, A. P.
    • Tang, Y. H.
    • Smith, P.
    • Fang, J. Y.
    • Yang, Y. H.
  • Source: Global Change Biology
  • Volume: 15
  • Issue: 11
  • Year: 2009
  • Summary: Climate warming is likely inducing carbon loss from soils of northern ecosystems, but little evidence comes from large-scale observations. Here we used data from a repeated soil survey and remote sensing vegetation index to explore changes in soil organic carbon (SOC) stock on the Tibetan Plateau during the past two decades. Our results showed that SOC stock in the top 30 cm depth in alpine grasslands on the plateau amounted to 4.4 PgC (1 Pg = 10(15) g), with an overall average of 3.9 kg C m(-2). SOC changes during 1980s - 2004 were estimated at -0.6 g C m(-2) yr(-1), ranging from -36.5 to 35.8 g C m(-)2 yr(-1) at 95% confidence, indicating that SOC stock in the Tibetan alpine grasslands remained relatively stable over the sampling periods. Our findings are nonconsistent with previous reports of loss of soil C in grassland ecosystems due to the accelerated decomposition with warming. In the case of the alpine grasslands on the Tibetan Plateau studied here, we speculate that increased rates of decomposition as soils warmed during the last two decades may have been compensated by increased soil C inputs due to increased grass productivity. These results suggest that soil C stock in terrestrial ecosystems may respond differently to climate change depending on ecosystem type, regional climate pattern, and intensity of human disturbance.
  • Authors:
    • NASS
    • USDA
  • Year: 2009
  • Authors:
    • Scialabba, N.
    • Hepperly, P.
    • Fließbach, A.
    • Niggli, U.
  • Year: 2009
  • Authors:
    • Fortin, J.
    • Tremblay, G.
    • Ziadi, N.
    • Chantigny, M. H.
    • Rochette, P.
    • Angers, D. A.
    • Poirier, V.
  • Source: Soil Science Society of America Journal
  • Volume: 73
  • Issue: 1
  • Year: 2009
  • Summary: Both tillage and fertilizer management influence soil organic C (SOC) storage, but their interactive effects remain to be determined for various soil and climatic conditions. We evaluated the long-term effects of tillage (no-till, NT, and moldboard plowing, MP), and N and P fertilization on SOC stocks and concentrations in profiles of a clay loam soil (clayey, mixed, mesic Typic Humaquept). Corn (Zea mays L.) and soybean [Glycine max (L) Merr.] were grown in a yearly rotation for 14 yr. Our results showed that NT enhanced the SOC content in the soil surface layer, but MP resulted in greater SOC content near the bottom of the plow layer. When the entire soil profile (0-60 cm) was considered, both effects compensated each other, which resulted in statistically equivalent SOC stocks for both tillage practices. Nitrogen and P fertilization with MP increased the estimated crop C inputs to the soil but did not significantly influence SOC stocks in the whole soil profile. At the 0- to 20-cm depth, however, lower C stocks were measured in the plowed soil with the highest N fertilizer level than in any other treatment, which was probably caused by a greater decomposition of crop residues and soil organic matter. Conversely, the highest SOC stocks of the 0- to 20-cm soil layer were observed in the NT treatment with the highest N rates, reflecting a greater residue accumulation at the soil Surface. When accounting for the whole soil profile, the variations in surface SOC due to tillage and fertilizer interactions were masked by tillage-induced differences in the 20- to 30-cm soil layer.