Forage productivity of combined crops of seed oats, maize, and Sudanese sorghum with white lupine

Abstract

Research aimed at the accumulation and effective use of nitrogen, its symbiotic fixation from the air by white lupine plants, by selecting the best cereal components, optimizing their ratio and methods of placement when growing in compatible crops under different fertilization systems in the Forest Steppe is insufficient. The purpose of this study was to establish the best cereal components, their ratio and methods of placement with white lupine when sowing in joint crops under different fertilizer systems to produce grass fodder in the Forest-Steppe of Ukraine. The following methods were used: field, laboratory, mathematical-statistical, calculation-comparative. It was established that the highest productivity on the background without fertilizers (4.21-4.86 t∙ha–1 of dry matter) was provided by single-species crops of maize and white lupine, as well as their combined crops, which were formed by continuous row and strip methods, which by 2.60-3.17 t∙ha–1 of dry matter or 1.8-2.6 times more compared to crops of oats and its mixture with white lupine and by 1.13-1.58 t·ha-1 or 1.4-1.5 times more compared to crops of Sudanese sorghum and its mixture with white lupine. Through the accumulation and use of symbiotic nitrogen fixation, the productivity of lupine-oat mixtures increased from 1.90 to 2.70-3.21 t∙ha–1 of dry mass or 1.4-1.7 times, and that of lupine-sorghum – from 3.17 to 3.43-3.47 or 1.1 times. The most effective ratio of each cereal component to legume in binary intercropping was 25:75% of the sowing rate in single-species agrocenoses when dry biomass productivity was the greatest. Compared to the variant without fertilizers, the most significant (by 1.3-2.0 times) increase in the productivity of all fodder agrocenoses under study was ensured by the application of N45Р30K50, while the application of P30K50 or humigran organic fertilizer at a dose of 250 kg·ha–1 – only by 1.2-1.3 times. The research results can be used in the development of scientific and methodological recommendations and the education about the formation of highly productive agrophytocenoses for conveyor production of high-quality grass fodder for animal feeding