Crop rotation effects on yield of oilseed rape, wheat and barley and residual effects on the subsequent wheat

Sieling, Klaus; Christen, Olaf

Crop rotation effects on yield of oilseed rape, wheat and barley and residual effects on the subsequent wheat

2015

Sieling, Klaus | Christen, Olaf

Economic conditions are forcing farmers to grow crops with high revenue leading to cereal-dominated crop rotations with increasing risk due to unfavourable preceding crops or preceding crop combinations. Based on a long-term field trial (1988–2001) with 15 different rotations including winter oilseed rape (OSR), winter wheat, winter barley, spring peas and spring oats, the effects of different preceding crops, pre-preceding crops and crop rotations on the grain yield of mainly OSR, winter wheat and winter barley were quantified. In the subsequent 2 years (2001/2002 and 2002/2003), winter wheat was grown on all plots in order to test the residual effects of the former crops (as preceding crops in 2002 and as pre-preceding crops in 2003) and crop rotations on growth, grain yield and yield components. Unfavourable preceding crops significantly decreased yield of OSR, wheat and barley by 10% on average, however, with a large year-to-year variation. In addition, break-crop benefits in both crops, wheat and OSR, persisted to the second year. Wheat as preceding crop mainly decreased the thousand grain weight, and to a lesser extent, the ear density of the subsequent wheat crop. The amount of wheat yield decrease negatively correlated with the simple water balance (rainfall minus evapotranspiration) in May–July. In 2001/2002 and 2002/2003, the preceding crop superimposed the crop rotation effects, thus resulting in similar effects as observed in 1988–2001. Our results clearly reveal the importance of a favourable preceding crop for the yield performance of a crop, especially wheat and OSR.

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