Integrated farm management systems to improve nutrient management using semi-virtual Farmlets: agronomic responses

With increasing demand for land and food, there is growing interest in sustainable intensification of agricultural production. Here we investigated sustainable intensification of grass and corn production for dairy farms using a system of semi-virtual farmlets that combine replicated field research...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental Research Communications 2021-07, Vol.3 (7), p.75009
Main Authors: Li, Carson, Hunt, Derek, Koenig, Karen, Smukler, Sean, Bittman, Shabtai
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agricultural practices
Agricultural production
Corn
Cover crops
Crop production
Dairy farming
Dairy farms
Emissions
Emissions control
Evaluation
Farm management
Farms
feed quality
Grasses
intercrop
Management systems
manure
Manures
Nitrification
nitrogen
Nitrous oxide
nutrient recovery
phosphorous
Plant protection
Pollution
Pollution control
Sludge
Sustainability
Sustainable production
Vegetables
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Summary:With increasing demand for land and food, there is growing interest in sustainable intensification of agricultural production. Here we investigated sustainable intensification of grass and corn production for dairy farms using a system of semi-virtual farmlets that combine replicated field research plots with feed modelling. We improved manure N capture by spreading separated liquid fraction with a low emission sliding shoe applicator on grass, and manure P capture by precision injecting separated sludge into corn. Reducing the number of annual harvests (5 to 3) increased grass yield and inter-seeding Italian ryegrass in early maturing corn increased fall growth of the cover crop, thus helping to protect soil over winter and providing additional high quality herbage in spring. Irrigation improved yield and potentially yield stability of corn and grass, and adding a nitrification inhibitor to reduce N 2 O emission may help reduce pollution swapping especially from injected manure. Overall, allocating more land to corn than grass will increase farm productivity but effectiveness of measures to reduce pollution and pollution swapping need to be evaluated. Results show that good practices ensuring vigorous crops are challenging to implement but critical for achieving sustainable intensification. The semi-virtual farmlet system is very helpful for developing and evaluating sustainable production measures for corn and grass.
ISSN:2515-7620
2515-7620
DOI:10.1088/2515-7620/ac13c6