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Acta Prataculturae Sinica ›› 2022, Vol. 31 ›› Issue (7): 157-171.DOI: 10.11686/cyxb2021251

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Effects of planting density and nitrogen application on forage yield, quality and nitrogen use efficiency in a maize/forage soybean intercropping system

Zi-wei JIANG(), Gui-yu LIU, Hao-yun AN, Wei SHI, Sheng-hua CHANG, Cheng ZHANG, Qian-min JIA(), Fu-jiang HOU   

  1. State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-ecosystems,Key Laboratory of Grassland Livestock Industry Innovation,Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs,Engineering Research Center of Grassland Industry,Ministry of Education,College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology,Lanzhou University,Lanzhou 730020,China
  • Received:2021-06-25 Revised:2021-08-03 Online:2022-07-20 Published:2022-06-01
  • Contact: Qian-min JIA

Abstract:

A field experiment involving maize (Zea mays)/forage soybean (Glycine max) intercropping was conducted in the Hexi irrigation district in 2019 and 2020. Three planting densities of 7.5×104 (D1), 9.0×104 (D2) and 10.5×104 plant·ha-1 (D3), and four nitrogen treatments of 0 (N1), 120 (N2), 240 (N3) and 360 kg·ha-1 (N4) were set up to explore the effect of planting density and nitrogen application on forage yield, quality and nitrogen utilization. It was found that the hay yield and yield of crude protein of silage maize and forage soybean under the D2 and D3 treatments were significantly higher than those under the D1 treatment, and the hay yield and yield of crude protein of silage maize, and the total hay yield under N3 and N4 treatments were significantly higher than those under N2 and N1 treatments. Among all treatments, D2N3 had the highest hay yield of 36.16 and 30.31 t·ha-1 in 2019 and 2020, respectively. With increase in planting density, the contents of crude protein and crude fat of silage maize and forage soybean, and the total crude protein content and crude fat content showed a downward trend, while the contents of crude ash, neutral detergent fiber and acid detergent fiber increased. The total crude protein content and crude fat content increased while the contents of crude ash, neutral detergent fiber and acid detergent fiber decreased with the increase of nitrogen application rate. The total nitrogen content, nitrogen uptake and nitrogen use efficiency of the D2 treatment were significantly higher than those of D3, and the D2 treatment had the highest agronomic efficiency of nitrogen use. The total nitrogen content and nitrogen uptake of N2, N3 and N4 treatments were significantly higher than that of N1, and the agronomic efficiency and nitrogen use efficiency of N3 treatment were significantly higher than that of N4. Among all treatments, D2N3 had the highest nitrogen use efficiency, which was 1.41 and 0.86 kg·kg-1 in 2019 and 2020, respectively. Therefore, based on these results the D2N3 treatment is a recommended field management regime for silage maize/forage soybean intercropping systems in the Hexi irrigation area, and we advocate its promotion and adoption.

Key words: planting density, nitrogen application, silage corn, forage soybean, nitrogen use efficiency