Plant Soil Environ., 2016, 62(11):490-496 | DOI: 10.17221/470/2016-PSE

Balancing the use of maize residues for soil amendment and forageOriginal Paper

S.Z. Tian^1,2, Z. Liu¹, B.W. Wang¹, Y. Wang³, Z.J. Li¹, R. Lal⁴, T.Y. Ning^1,4

¹ State Key Laboratory Crop Biology, Shandong Key Laboratory Crop Biology, National Engineering Laboratory for Efficient Utilization of Soil and Fertilizer Resources, Shandong Agricultural University, Taian, Shandong, P.R. China

² Institute of Agricultural Resources and Environment, Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Scientific Observing and Experimental Station of Arable Land Conservation of Shandong, Ministry of Agriculture, Jinan, P.R. China

³ Shandong Rice Research Institute, Jinan, Shandong, P.R. China

⁴ Carbon Management and Sequestration Center, College of Food, Agricultural Environmental Sciences, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA

Balancing the use of maize (Zea mays L.) residues for soil amendment and forage is an important strategy for agricultural sustainability. Therefore, the study assessed the impacts of four proportions of maize residues to soil retention (S) and forage (F) on soil total organic carbon (TOC); total nitrogen (TN); carbon/nitrogen ratio (C/N); grain yield, economic benefits and nutritional contents of removed residues. The concentrations of TOC and TN increased when more residue returned, while the C/N ratios were S₁₀₀ + F₀ > S₃₄ + F₆₆ > S₆₆ + F₃₄. Also, crude protein, crude fat, and crude starch in the removed residues were F₃₄ > F₆₆ > F₁₀₀, while the crude fiber and ash contents exhibited the opposite trend. The crop yield improved with residue retention increased, but there were no differences on the economic benefits of the four residue-use systems. The S₃₄ + F₆₆ system maintained a TOC ranging from 11.51 to 13.37 g/kg, a TN from 1.12 to 1.16 g/kg, 92.93% of the annual yields of the S₁₀₀ + F₀ system, and 6.2 t/ha/year of forage. Therefore, the S₃₄ + F₆₆ system can balance the use of maize residues for soil amendments and forage to sustainably develop a household crop-livestock system.

Keywords: no-tillage; long-term experiment; wheat-maize rotation system; nutritive contents; spider plot

Published: November 30, 2016  Show citation