Monday, 7 November 2005
16

Soil Chemical Properties of a Rhodic Hapludox Soil after Surface Lime Application in an Integrated Crop – Livestock System.

I. Anghinoni1, J.P.C. Flores1, P.C.F. Carvalho1, and R. M. Sulc2. (1) Univ. Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Av. Bento Goncalves, 7712, Porto Alegre - RS, 91501-970, Brazil, (2) Ohio State University, 2021 Coffey Rd, Columbus, OH 43210-1086

In the state of Rio Grande of Sul in southern Brazil, grain crops are produced under no-tillage (NT) management on 2 million ha in the summer, which are followed by cover crops in the winter. The cover crops could be used for cattle grazing, thus integrating grain and livestock production. Many farmers are hesitant to adopt livestock-crop integration systems because they fear the presence of cattle in cropping areas will affect soil physical properties related to soil compaction. Those physical alterations, depending on their magnitude, could affect the movement of surface applied lime through the soil profile. Our objective was to evaluate the effect of winter grazing pressure on the movement of surface applied lime into the soil profile in a NT integrated crop-livestock system. The experiment has been conducted since 2001 on a Rhodic Hapludox soil that has been under NT for 12 years. The experimental area (23 ha) was divided into 12 paddocks distributed within 3 replicates. The treatments consisted of different pasture sward heights during the winter: 10, 20, 30 and 40 cm maintained by use of variable continuous stocking of cattle (put-and-take), and a non-grazed treatment. Soil samples were collected after the third year of winter grazing (November 2003), from depths of 0-2.5, 2.5-5.0, 5.0-7.5, 7.5-10.0, 10.0-12.5, 12.5-15.0, 15.0-17.5, 17.5-20.0, and 20.0-25.0 cm. The results demonstrated the importance of cattle waste in decreasing the toxic effects of aluminum and increasing basic divalent cations in the soil profile under this integrated NT system with surface-applied lime. The positive effect of animal waste products apparently was greater than that of plant residues and the small soil compaction effect caused by the cattle in this animal-crop integration system.

Handout (.pdf format, 727.0 kb)

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