Productivity of agricultural crops and field crop rotations under different primary tillage and fertilization systems on typical chernozem

Abstract

Five-year (2020‒2024) studies conducted on typical deep chernozem at the experimental field of Bila Tserkva National Agrarian University established that the productivity of five-field crop rotations (first rotation: 1 – pea; 2 – winter wheat, white mustard as green manure; 3 – maize; 4 – buckwheat; 5 – winter wheat, white mustard as green manure; second rotation: 1 – soybean; 2 – winter wheat, white mustard as green manure; 3 – maize; 4 – spring barley, white mustard as green manure; 5 – sunflower) and yield of main crops were significantly lower under moldboard-free disk and disk tillage compared to moldboard-disk tillage. Green mass of post-harvest white mustard incorporated into soil was significantly lower under disk tillage after both preceding crops. Under differentiated tillage in the second crop rotation, maize and spring barley yields increased significantly. In terms of dry matter and feed unit output from marketable and non-marketable agricultural products, differentiated tillage of fertilized plots in the second crop rotation significantly exceeded moldboard-disk tillage. Regarding dry matter output of main products, the studied crop rotations with 20 % and 40 % share of row crops were nearly equivalent, while digestible protein collection from marketable products showed the second rotation exceeding the first by 19 %. The most effective primary soil tillage system in both rotations was differentiated tillage, involving deep plowing (25‒27 cm) for one row crop – maize (with 30 t/ha manure application), and moldboard-free and disk tillage of varying depths for other agricultural crops with application of 6 t manure + N₉₂P₆₆K₉₂ per hectare of arable land in the first rotation and 6 t manure + N₉₂P₆₆K₉₂ in the second rotation.