Speaker
Description
Intercropping, i.e. growing two or more crops together on the same land simultaneously is becoming more common in Europe in recent years, especially in organic farming and low-input in production systems. Cultivation of legumes together with cereals in intercropping reduces mineral nitrogen need due to nitrogen biologically fixed by leguminous plants, thus also reducing the expenses on nitrogen fertilizers. Compared to pure seeding of cereals, intercropped seedings are more adaptable
and resistant to changing weather conditions, which ensures yield stability and higher protein yield.
In 2022 and 2023 a field experiment with different seed mixtures was established at the experimental field of the Estonian University of Life Sciences, where oat (variety ‘Symphony’),spring barley (variety ‘Laureate’), field pea (variety ‘Casablanca’) and spring vetch (variety ‘Hanka’) were grown. Intercropped treatments included oat + pea and barley + vetch. There were two fertilizer treatments - control (N0) without fertilizer (N0P0K0) and fertilized treatment with complex fertilizer (N1), where the amounts of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and
potassium (K) were respectively 23, 30 and 63 kg ha‒1 ( N23P30K63).
The maximum grain yield was obtained from pure seeding of both cereals. The weather of the year had a great influence on the results of the experiment, which caused uneven sprouting of legumes, gaps in the herbage, high weeds and low grain yield of pure seeding of peas and vetch. The assumption that the protein yield of mixed seeding is higher
than that of pure seeding of cereals was not proven in this experiment. When preparing seed mixtures, the compatibility, competitiveness and ratio of the seeds in the mixture must be carefully observed. The inappropriate ratio of cereals to legumes in the seed mixtures and the interaction of unfavorable weather conditions caused a very small
proportion of legumes in the herbage in this experiment and their extremely low yield in both mixed seeding.
| Keywords | intercropping, cereal, legumes |
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