The legacy of pasture drill rows on soil chemical characteristics and subsequent wheat production
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The legacy of pasture drill rows on soil chemical characteristics and subsequent wheat production Richard C. Hayes & Guangdi D. Li & Richard P. Rawnsley & Keith G. Pembleton & Ross Corkrey & Mark B. Peoples
Received: 21 April 2020 / Accepted: 19 August 2020 # Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract Aims To examine the legacy of pasture drill rows sown to various configurations of subterranean clover (Trifolium subterraneum L.), lucerne (Medicago sativa L.) and phalaris (Phalaris aquatica L.), on soil chemical characteristics and wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) production in the year following pasture removal. Methods A field experiment comparing 10 pasture species combination treatments conducted on a Red Kandosol soil in a semi-arid environment in southeastern Australia was monitored from the end of the pasture phase until harvest of the first wheat crop. R. C. Hayes : G. D. Li NSW Department of Primary Industries, Wagga Wagga Agricultural Institute, Pine Gully Rd, Wagga, NSW 2650, Australia R. C. Hayes (*) : R. P. Rawnsley University of Tasmania, Private Bag 3523, Burnie, TAS 7320, Australia e-mail: [email protected] K. G. Pembleton School of Sciences and Centre for Sustainable Agricultural Systems, University of Southern Queensland, West St, Toowoomba, QLD 4350, Australia R. Corkrey University of Tasmania, Private Bag 98, Hobart, TAS 7001, Australia M. B. Peoples CSIRO Agriculture and Food, GPO Box 1700, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia
Quadrats were fixed to the soil surface to mark previous pasture drill rows. Soil within and between rows was sampled to 0.6 m at three times and analysed for mineral nitrogen (N), pH, total carbon (C) and available macronutrients, and related to wheat growth rate and yield. Results Significantly higher total C, mineral N and plant-available potassium (K), and lower sulphur (S) concentrations, were still evident in the original pasture drill row after grain harvest compared to the inter-row area, four years after pastures were sown. Grain yield was 11% greater in wheat growing on the original pasture drill row compared to between rows. Pure lucerne swards had less mineralised N than mixed lucerne swards associated with reduced water in the soil profile. Conclusions This study establishes the enduring legacy of pasture drill rows observed up to 14 months postremoval and highlights the opportunity to improve soil fertility through manipulation of pasture sowing configurations in a cropping field in south-eastern Australia. Keywords Pasture composition . Legumes . Perennial grass . Nitrogen . Wheat yield
Introduction Spatially separating pasture species in different drill rows at sowing may be a convenient way of manipulating mixtures of multiple species. Some operators have used this approach to vary the composition of a pasture by increasing or decreasing the number of drill rows containing particular species (for example, Wolfe and Southwood
Plant Soil
1980), whilst others have used spatial separation to manage interspecific competition in an att
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