Yield and quality of barley when grown in mixed cropping with winter turnip rape Antti Tuulos

Transcription

1 Yield and quality of barley when grown in mixed cropping Antti Tuulos

2 Winter turnip rape: Why mixed cropping with a spring cereal? Turnip rape is better adapted to Finland than oilseed rape Winter cultivars are higher yielding than spring ones Early sowing time (July) is the biggest limitation to winter turnip rape cultivation in Finland Solution: undersowing winter turnip rape to spring cereal in May (=mixed cropping) Competition in mixed crop stands often has negative effects on yield and quality

3 Outline Winter turnip rape as a cultivated crop: possibilities and problems Experiment and malting barley Results: Barley yield and quality in mixed cropping What traits define the ideal barley intercrop?

4 Winter turnip rape as a cultivated crop Higher yield potential, larger seed that spring cultivars Covers soil during winter, a possible N catch crop Enhances cereal crop rotations and biodiversity Overwintering sometimes a problem, spring survival difficult as well Sowing time in July is too early in a cereal rotation Soil is often too dry for germination in July Undersowing winter turnip rape with a cereal in May enables the efficient use of cultivated area during two growing seasons Maatalous-metsätieteellinen tiedekunta / Henkilön nimi / Esityksen nimi

5 Experiment with winter turnip rape and malting barley A field experiment ( ) at the University of Helsinki experimental farm (repeated ) completely randomized, four replicates, 10 m 2 plots winter turnip rape (Brassica rapa L. ssp oleifera (DC.) Metzg) Largo, malting barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) Annabell mixed stands of barley (550 plants/m 2 ) and winter turnip rape with different densities (low 80 plants/m 2, normal 140 plants/m 2, high 190 plants/m 2 ) Pure stands of each species as control

6 June 2006, winter turnip rape growing under barley

7 September 2006, winter turnip rape is ready to overwinter 6 weeks after barley harvest

8 Results: Barley yield and quality Treatment Barley yield, kg/ha Number of grains/plant Thousand grain weight, g Nitrogen content, % Test weight, kg/hl Germination, % Barley pure stand Barley+WTR low Barley+WTR normal Barley+WTR high SE (pure stand) SE (mixtures) WTR, winter turnip rape

9 What traits define the ideal barley intercrop? Canopy architecture height (irradiance) lodging shading (leaf angles and posture) tiller formation (seeding rate) Differences in the requirement for growing degree days between cultivars Strongly competing cultivars with rapid growth during early developmental stages How do other cereals, such as wheat and oat, perform?

10 Summary Winter turnip rape as an undersown crop has only slight effect to barley yield and its quality Selection of suitable cereal cultivars could improve the performance of mixed stands High vernalization requirement necessary for May sowing of winter turnip rape

11 Thank you!

12 Mixed cropping of barley and winter turnip rape: six-rowed barley vs. malting barley yield kg/ha yield kg/ha six-rowed barley six rowed barley + WTR high density six rowed barley low density+ WTR normal density malting barley malting barley + WTR high density malting barley low density+ WTR normal density