Optimizing N management through improving transitions of temporary grassland and maize in rotation

Bijeenkomst: EGF2015
Auteur: Verloop J. and Hilhorst J.
ISBN: 978-9090-289-61-8
Jaar van uitgifte: 2015
Producttype: Paper
Crop rotation in which grass and maize are alternated may contribute to efficient production of feeds for dairy production. However, in particular on dry sandy soils, proper transitions from the arable into the grassland phase and vice versa are crucial to control N leaching. From 1993 to 2010 we implemented four different systems on the experimental dairy farm De Marke on the basis of a grass-grass-grass-arablearable-arable rotation scheme. Each consecutive system was implemented to solve problems of the former system. This paper presents results on how various sources of information contributed to developments of crop rotation schemes on De Marke. Fodder beet was replaced by maize as first-year arable crop to avoid storage problems associated with fodder beet. This change tended to result in higher nitrate leaching to groundwater under first- and last-year arable crops. This was solved by leaving out N fertilization in the first-year maize. Smoothing the transition of arable land into new temporary grassland resulted in a more continuous presence of vegetation during winter. However, this had no clear effect on nitrate leaching to groundwater.