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Rye-soybean double-crop: planting method and N fertilization effects in the North Central US
- Robert W. Malone, Peter L. O'Brien, Steph Herbstritt, Bryan D. Emmett, Douglas L. Karlen, Tom C. Kaspar, Keith Kohler, Anna Radke, Sergio H. Lence, Huaiqing Wu, Tom L. Richard
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- Journal:
- Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems / Volume 37 / Issue 5 / October 2022
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 13 September 2022, pp. 445-456
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- Article
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Double-cropping winter rye cover crops (CC) with soybean in the North Central US could help with the global effort to sustainably intensify agriculture. Studies addressing the management of these systems are limited. Therefore, a field study was conducted from 2017 to 2019 in Central Iowa, US to evaluate winter rye CC biomass production, aboveground N accumulation, estimated economics, estimated within-field energy balance and estimated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions under three N application rates (0, 60, 120 kg N ha−1) and three planting methods (pre- and post-harvest broadcast and post-harvest drilling). Averaged over N rates, all planting methods resulted in >5.0 Mg ha−1 year−1 rye aboveground biomass dry matter. Averaged over the 2-year study and compared with unfertilized treatments, applying 60 kg N ha−1 produced 1.1 Mg ha−1 more aboveground biomass (6.1 vs 5.0 Mg ha−1), accumulated 30 kg ha−1 more N in aboveground biomass (88 vs 58 kg N ha−1), and led to 20 GJ ha−1 more net energy. Biomass production was not significantly higher with 120 kg N ha−1 compared with the 60 kg N ha−1 rate. Even when accounting for an estimated 0.75 Mg ha−1 of above ground rye biomass left in the field after harvesting, more N was removed than applied at the 60 kg N ha−1 rate. The minimum rye prices over the 2-year study needed for double-cropping winter rye CC to be profitable (breakeven prices) averaged $117 and $104 Mg−1 for the 0 and 60 kg N ha−1 rates, which factors in estimated soybean yield reductions in 2019 compared with local averages but not off-site transportation. GHG emissions were estimated to increase approximately threefold between the unfertilized and 60 kg N ha−1 rates without considering bioenergy offsets. While environmental tradeoffs need further study, results suggest harvesting fertilized rye CC biomass before planting soybean is a promising practice for the North Central US to maximize total crop and net energy production.
Contributors
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- By Federico Agliardi, Andrea Alpiger, Gianluca Bianchi Fasani, Lars Harald Blikra, Brian D. Bornhold, Edward N. Bromhead, Marko H.K. Bulmer, D. Calvin Campbell, Marie Charrière, Masahiro Chigira, John J. Clague, John Coggan, Giovanni B. Crosta, Tim Davies, Marc-Henri Derron, Mark Diederichs, Erik Eberhardt, Carlo Esposito, Robin Fell, Paolo Frattini, Corey R. Froese, Monica Ghirotti, Valentin Gischig, James S. Griffiths, Stephen R. Hencher, Reginald L. Hermanns, Kris Holm, Seyyedmahdi Hosseyni, Niels Hovius, Christian Huggel, Florian Humair, Oldrich Hungr, D. Jean Hutchinson, Michel Jaboyedoff, Matthias Jakob, Julien Jakubowski, Randall W. Jibson, Katherine S. Kalenchuk, Nikolay Khabarov, Oliver Korup, Luca Lenti, Serge Leroueil, Simon Loew, Oddvar Longva, Patrick MacGregor, Andrew W. Malone, Salvatore Martino, Scott McDougall, Mika McKinnon, Mauri McSaveney, Patrick Meunier, Dennis Moore, Jeffrey R. Moore, David C. Mosher, Michael Obersteiner, Lucio Olivares, Thierry Oppikofer, Luca Pagano, Massimo Pecci, Andrea Pedrazzini, David Petley, Luciano Picarelli, David J.W. Piper, John Psutka, Nicholas J. Roberts, Gabriele Scarascia Mugnozza, David Stapledon, Douglas Stead, Richard E. Thomson, Paolo Tommasi, J. Kenneth Torrance, Nobuyuki Torii, Gianfranco Urciuoli, Gonghui Wang, Christopher F. Waythomas, Malcolm Whitworth, Heike Willenberg, Xiyong Wu
- Edited by John J. Clague, Simon Fraser University, British Columbia, Douglas Stead, Simon Fraser University, British Columbia
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- Book:
- Landslides
- Published online:
- 05 May 2013
- Print publication:
- 23 August 2012, pp vii-x
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ECONOMIC AND STOCHASTIC EFFICIENCY COMPARISON OF EXPERIMENTAL TILLAGE SYSTEMS IN CORN AND SOYABEAN UNDER RISK
- EIHAB M. FATHELRAHMAN, JAMES C. ASCOUGH II, DANA L. HOAG, ROBERT W. MALONE, PHILIP HEILMAN, LORI J. WILES, RAMESH S. KANWAR
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- Journal:
- Experimental Agriculture / Volume 47 / Issue 1 / January 2011
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 26 January 2011, pp. 111-136
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There are many reasons why agricultural researchers carefully evaluate approaches to experimental data analysis. Agricultural experiments are typically highly complex, with many types of variables often collected at a wide range of temporal and spatial scales. Furthermore, research in the developing world is often conducted on-farm where simple and conventional experimental designs are often unsuitable. Recently, a variant of stochastic dominance called stochastic efficiency with respect to a function (SERF) has been developed and used to analyse long-term experimental data. Unlike traditional stochastic dominance approaches, SERF uses the concept of certainty equivalents (CEs) to rank a set of risk-efficient alternatives instead of finding a subset of dominated alternatives. This study evaluates the efficacy of the SERF methodology for analysing conventional and conservation tillage systems using 14 years (1990–2003) of economic budget data collected from 36 experimental plots at the Iowa State University Northeast Research Station near Nashua, IA, USA. Specifically, the SERF approach is used to examine which of two different tillage systems (chisel plough and no-till) on continuous corn (Zea mays) and corn/soyabean (Glycine max) rotation cropping systems are the most risk-efficient in terms of maximizing economic profitability (gross margin and net return) by crop across a range of risk aversion preferences. In addition to the SERF analysis, we also conduct an economic analysis of the tillage system alternatives using mean-standard deviation and coefficient of variation for ranking purposes. Decision criteria analysis of the economic measures alone provided somewhat contradictive and non-conclusive rankings, e.g. examination of the decision criteria results for gross margin and net return showed that different tillage system alternatives were the highest ranked depending on the criterion and the cropping system (e.g. individual or rotation). SERF analysis results for the tillage systems were also dependent on the cropping system (individual, rotation or whole-farm combined) and economic outcome of interest (gross margin or net return) but only marginally on the level of risk aversion. For the individual cropping systems (continuous corn, rotation corn and rotation soyabean), the no-till tillage and rotation soyabean system was the most preferred and the chisel plough tillage and continuous corn system the least preferred across the entire range of risk aversion for both gross margin and net return. The no-till tillage system was preferred to the chisel plough tillage system when ranking within the continuous corn and the corn-soyabean rotation cropping systems for both gross margin and net return. Finally, when analysing the tillage system alternatives on a whole-farm basis (i.e. combined continuous corn and corn-soybean rotation), the no-till tillage system was clearly preferred to the chisel plough tillage system for both gross margin and net return. This study indicates that the SERF method appears to be a useful and easily understood tool to assist farm managers, experimental researchers and, potentially, policy makers and advisers on problems involving agricultural risk.