scholarly journals Cycling Phosphorus and Nitrogen through Cropping Systems in an Intensive Dairy Production Region

Agronomy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 1005
Author(s):  
April B. Leytem ◽  
Paula Williams ◽  
Shan Zuidema ◽  
Audrey Martinez ◽  
Yen Leng Chong ◽  
...  

As pressure on the dairy industry to reduce its environmental impact increases, efficient recycling of manure nutrients through local cropping systems becomes crucial. The aim of this study was to calculate annual nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) budgets in six counties located in the Magic Valley, Idaho and estimate what distance manure would need to be transported to be in balance with crop nutrient demand given current dairy cattle populations and cropping systems. Our analysis suggests that crop N needs will not be met solely by manure, and synthetic fertilizer will need to be applied. However, to balance P with crop production, manure would need to be transported a minimum of 12.9 km from dairies and would have to replace synthetic fertilizer P on 91% of regional cropland. Education of producers and technical specialists would be necessary to improve the management of manure use in regional cropping systems. Technical solutions such as alternative diets for cattle and nutrient capture from manure streams will also likely be necessary to bring regional P into balance to protect environmental quality and improve the sustainability of the regional dairy industry.

1992 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 665-668 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald L. Wyse

The development of crop cultivars with resistance to selected herbicides has the potential to impact environmental quality, food safety, consumers, and crop producers in either a positive or negative manner. The technology that makes it possible to develop herbicide-resistant crops is neither good nor bad, it is rather how the products of this technology are used that will determine whether or not the introduction of herbicide-resistant crops is ultimately a good or bad decision. The introduction of herbicide-resistant crops will have diverse impacts leading to redundancy, diversity, and confusion in crop production systems. Often the introduction of herbicide-resistant cultivars will have the same impact on cropping systems as the introduction of a new herbicide that has the same mode-of-action and use pattern of herbicides already in use. This may add diversity of herbicide options for a given crop but will cause redundancy of product use over several years. This redundancy could lead to weed resistance and water quality concerns. Confusion at the user level will exist because not all cultivars of a crop will be resistant to the herbicide; this could be the major deterrent to widespread adoption of herbicide-resistant crops. Steps must be taken to provide information to crop producers that will insure that herbicide-resistant crops are used effectively and safely. Weed scientists will determine whether this technology will be used to improve food safety, water quality, crop production systems, and farmer profitability or have a negative impact on agriculture and the whole of society.


2007 ◽  
Vol 99 (4) ◽  
pp. 904-911 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. L. Tanaka ◽  
J. M. Krupinsky ◽  
S. D. Merrill ◽  
M. A. Liebig ◽  
J. D. Hanson

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 131-140
Author(s):  
Federica Cappelletti ◽  
Marta Rossi ◽  
Michele Germani ◽  
Mohammad Shadman Hanif

AbstractDe-manufacturing and re-manufacturing are fundamental technical solutions to efficiently recover value from post-use products. Disassembly in one of the most complex activities in de-manufacturing because i) the more manual it is the higher is its cost, ii) disassembly times are variable due to uncertainty of conditions of products reaching their EoL, and iii) because it is necessary to know which components to disassemble to balance the cost of disassembly. The paper proposes a methodology that finds ways of applications: it can be applied at the design stage to detect space for product design improvements, and it also represents a baseline from organizations approaching de-manufacturing for the first time. The methodology consists of four main steps, in which firstly targets components are identified, according to their environmental impact; secondly their disassembly sequence is qualitatively evaluated, and successively it is quantitatively determined via disassembly times, predicting also the status of the component at their End of Life. The aim of the methodology is reached at the fourth phase when alternative, eco-friendlier End of Life strategies are proposed, verified, and chosen.


2021 ◽  
Vol 192 ◽  
pp. 103170
Author(s):  
Karin Veltman ◽  
C. Alan Rotz ◽  
Larry Chase ◽  
Joyce Cooper ◽  
Chris E. Forest ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Daniel P. Roberts ◽  
Nicholas M. Short ◽  
James Sill ◽  
Dilip K. Lakshman ◽  
Xiaojia Hu ◽  
...  

AbstractThe agricultural community is confronted with dual challenges; increasing production of nutritionally dense food and decreasing the impacts of these crop production systems on the land, water, and climate. Control of plant pathogens will figure prominently in meeting these challenges as plant diseases cause significant yield and economic losses to crops responsible for feeding a large portion of the world population. New approaches and technologies to enhance sustainability of crop production systems and, importantly, plant disease control need to be developed and adopted. By leveraging advanced geoinformatic techniques, advances in computing and sensing infrastructure (e.g., cloud-based, big data-driven applications) will aid in the monitoring and management of pesticides and biologicals, such as cover crops and beneficial microbes, to reduce the impact of plant disease control and cropping systems on the environment. This includes geospatial tools being developed to aid the farmer in managing cropping system and disease management strategies that are more sustainable but increasingly complex. Geoinformatics and cloud-based, big data-driven applications are also being enlisted to speed up crop germplasm improvement; crop germplasm that has enhanced tolerance to pathogens and abiotic stress and is in tune with different cropping systems and environmental conditions is needed. Finally, advanced geoinformatic techniques and advances in computing infrastructure allow a more collaborative framework amongst scientists, policymakers, and the agricultural community to speed the development, transfer, and adoption of these sustainable technologies.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathalie Colbach ◽  
Sandrine Petit ◽  
Bruno Chauvel ◽  
Violaine Deytieux ◽  
Martin Lechenet ◽  
...  

The growing recognition of the environmental and health issues associated to pesticide use requires to investigate how to manage weeds with less or no herbicides in arable farming while maintaining crop productivity. The questions of weed harmfulness, herbicide efficacy, the effects of herbicide use on crop yields, and the effect of reducing herbicides on crop production have been addressed over the years but results and interpretations often appear contradictory. In this paper, we critically analyze studies that have focused on the herbicide use, weeds and crop yield nexus. We identified many inconsistencies in the published results and demonstrate that these often stem from differences in the methodologies used and in the choice of the conceptual model that links the three items. Our main findings are: (1) although our review confirms that herbicide reduction increases weed infestation if not compensated by other cultural techniques, there are many shortcomings in the different methods used to assess the impact of weeds on crop production; (2) Reducing herbicide use rarely results in increased crop yield loss due to weeds if farmers compensate low herbicide use by other efficient cultural practices; (3) There is a need for comprehensive studies describing the effect of cropping systems on crop production that explicitly include weeds and disentangle the impact of herbicides from the effect of other practices on weeds and on crop production. We propose a framework that presents all the links and feed-backs that must be considered when analyzing the herbicide-weed-crop yield nexus. We then provide a number of methodological recommendations for future studies. We conclude that, since weeds are causing yield loss, reduced herbicide use and maintained crop productivity necessarily requires a redesign of cropping systems. These new systems should include both agronomic and biodiversity-based levers acting in concert to deliver sustainable weed management.


2017 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Walsh ◽  
John C. Broster ◽  
Stephen B. Powles

AbstractIn Australia, widespread evolution of multi-resistant weed populations has driven the development and adoption of harvest weed seed control (HWSC). However, due to incompatibility of commonly used HWSC systems with highly productive conservation cropping systems, better HWSC systems are in demand. This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of the integrated Harrington Seed Destructor (iHSD) mill on the seeds of Australia’s major crop weeds during wheat chaff processing. Also examined were the impacts of chaff type and moisture content on weed seed destruction efficacy. Initially, the iHSD mill speed of 3,000 rpm was identified as the most effective at destroying rigid ryegrass seeds present in wheat chaff. Subsequent testing determined that the iHSD mill was highly effective (>95% seed kill) on all Australian crop weeds examined. Rigid ryegrass seed kill was found to be highest for lupin chaff and lowest in barley, with wheat and canola chaff intermediate. Similarly, wheat chaff moisture reduced rigid ryegrass seed kill when moisture level exceeded 12%. The broad potential of the iHSD mill was evident, in that the reductions in efficacy due to wide-ranging differences in chaff type and moisture content were relatively small (≤10%). The results from these studies confirm the high efficacy and widespread suitability of the iHSD for use in Australian crop production systems. Additionally, as this system allows the conservation of all harvest residues, it is the best HWSC technique for conservation cropping systems.


Author(s):  
J. Macholdt ◽  
J. Glerup Gyldengren ◽  
E. Diamantopoulos ◽  
M. E. Styczen

Abstract One of the major challenges in agriculture is how climate change influences crop production, for different environmental (soil type, topography, groundwater depth, etc.) and agronomic management conditions. Through systems modelling, this study aims to quantify the impact of future climate on yield risk of winter wheat for two common soil types of Eastern Denmark. The agro-ecosystem model DAISY was used to simulate arable, conventional cropping systems (CSs) and the study focused on the three main management factors: cropping sequence, usage of catch crops and cereal straw management. For the case region of Eastern Denmark, the future yield risk of wheat does not necessarily increase under climate change mainly due to lower water stress in the projections; rather, it depends on appropriate management and each CS design. Major management factors affecting the yield risk of wheat were N supply and the amount of organic material added during rotations. If a CS is characterized by straw removal and no catch crop within the rotation, an increased wheat yield risk must be expected in the future. In contrast, more favourable CSs, including catch crops and straw incorporation, maintain their capacity and result in a decreasing yield risk over time. Higher soil organic matter content, higher net nitrogen mineralization rate and higher soil organic nitrogen content were the main underlying causes for these positive effects. Furthermore, the simulation results showed better N recycling and reduced nitrate leaching for the more favourable CSs, which provide benefits for environment-friendly and sustainable crop production.


2012 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Drew J. Lyon ◽  
Gary W. Hergert

AbstractOrganic farming systems use green and animal manures to supply nitrogen (N) to their fields for crop production. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of green manure and composted cattle manure on the subsequent winter wheat (Triticum aestivumL.) crop in a semiarid environment. Dry pea (Pisum sativumL.) was seeded in early April and terminated at first flower in late June. Composted cattle manure was applied at 0, 11.2 or 22.5 Mg ha−1just prior to pea termination. Winter wheat was planted in mid September following the green manure or tilled summer fallow. No positive wheat response to green manure or composted cattle manure was observed in any of the 3 years of the study. In 2 of the 3 years, wheat yields and grain test weight were reduced following green manure. Green manure reduced grain yields compared with summer fallow by 220 and 1190 kg ha−1in 2009 and 2010, respectively. This may partially be explained by 40 and 47 mm less soil water at wheat planting following peas compared with tilled summer fallow in 2008 and 2009, respectively. Also, in 2008 and 2009, soil nitrate level averaged 45 kg ha−1higher for black fallow compared with green manure fallow when no compost was added. Organic growers in the semiarid Central Great Plains will be challenged to supply N fertility to their winter wheat crop in a rapid and consistent manner as a result of the inherently variable precipitation. Growers may need to allow several years to pass before seeing the benefits of fertility practices in their winter wheat cropping systems.


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