Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-qxdb6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T05:01:39.394Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Fertilizer nitrogen addition to winter wheat crops in England: comparison of farm practices with recommendations allowing for soil nitrogen supply

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2009

W. S. Wilson ,
K. L. Moore ,
A. D. Rochford  and
L. V. Vaidyanathan
W. S. Wilson
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester CO4 3SQ, UK
K. L. Moore
Affiliation:
Statistics Department, IACR-Rothamsted, Harpenden AL5 2JQ, UK
A. D. Rochford
Affiliation:
Agricultural Development and Advisory Service, Soil and Water Research Centre, Anstey Hall, Maris Lane, Trumpington, Cambridge CB2 2LF, UK
L. V. Vaidyanathan
Affiliation:
Agricultural Development and Advisory Service, Soil and Water Research Centre, Anstey Hall, Maris Lane, Trumpington, Cambridge CB2 2LF, UK
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Measurements were made during 1987/88 on 20 winter wheat crops grown in Essex, four on each of five soil types – sandy loam, sandy silt loam, silt loam, calcareous clay loam and clay loam – where winter wheat, dried peas, winter faba beans or winter oilseed rape was the previous crop in 1986/87. The sites had a wide range of soil mineral N (SNS), 40–198 kg/ha N, as NH4 plus NO3, in the 0–90 cm soil profile. Optimum grain yield and fertilizer N could not be estimated but yields measured in the absence of fertilizer N enabled evaluation of the use of SNS on its own and the response to fertilizer N (187 ± 32 kg/ha). For crops receiving fertilizer N, each tonne of grain was associated with 35kg of total available N in the soil profile (SNS + fertilizer N); a little over 63% of this N was found in the above-ground parts of the crops at harvest. Fertilizer N requirement was predicted as:

Fertilizer N needed (kg/ha) = [35 × predicted grain yield (t/ha)]–SNS (kg/ha)

An arbitrary assumption of 8 t/ha grain for every site (fortuitously the same as the average of 8·07t/ha measured in crops given fertilizer N) showed that differences between added and predicted amounts of N differed by c. 30 kg/ha for only seven of the 20 sites, mostly because of large SNS or yields much less than 8 t/ha. Measuring SNS and using the formula would be justified in the majority of winter wheat crops, provided reliable yield estimates could be made in time.

Type
Crops and Soils
Information
The Journal of Agricultural Science , Volume 127 , Issue 1 , August 1996 , pp. 11 - 22
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Barraclough, P. B. & Leigh, R. A. (1984). The growth and activity of winter wheat roots in the field of highyielding crops. The Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge 103, 59–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goulding, K. W. T. & Johnston, A. E. (1989). Long-term atmospheric deposition and soil acidification at Rothamsted Experimental Station, England. In: Acid Deposition – Sources, Effects and Controls (Ed. Longhurst, J. W. S.), pp. 213–228. Letchworth, UK: British Library Technical Communications.Google Scholar
Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (1984). Fertiliser Handling and Application. MAFF/ADAS Mechanisation Booklet 15. Alnwick, UK. MAFF (Publications).Google Scholar
Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (1986). The Analysis of Agricultural Materials, 3rd edn. MAFF/ADAS Reference Book 427. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (1988). Fertilizer Recommendations for Agricultural and Horticultural crops. MAFF/ADAS Reference Book 209. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (1992). Fertilizer Use on Farm Crops. England and Wales 1991. Survey of Fertilizer Practice. London: MAFF Publications.Google Scholar
Snedecor, G. W. & Cochran, W. G. (1980). Statistical Methods, 7th edn. Ames, Iowa: Iowa State University Press.Google Scholar
Sylvester-Bradley, R., Addiscott, T. M., Vaidyanathan, L. V., Murray, A. W. A. & Whitmore, A. P. (1987). Nitrogen advice for cereals: present realities and future possibilities. Proceedings of the Fertiliser Society 263, 1–36.Google Scholar
Tottman, D. R. (1987). The decimal code for the growth stages of cereals, with illustrations. Annals of Applied Biology 110, 441–454.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vaidyanathan, L. V. & Wilson, W. S. (1992). Influence of organic carbon and nitrogen associated with cropping history and soil textural class on nitrogen use by winter wheat (Triticum aestivum). In Humus: its Structure and Role in Agriculture and Environment: Proceedings of the 10th Symposium Humuset Planta, Prague, August 1991 (Ed Kubat, J.), pp. 57–68. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science Publishers.Google Scholar
Vaidyanathan, L. V., Shepherd, M. A. & Chambers, B. J. (1991). Mineral nitrogen arising from organic matter and organic manures related to winter wheat production. In Advances in Soil Organic Matter Research: the Impact on Agriculture and the Environment (Ed. Wilson, W. S.), pp. 315–327. Cambridge: The Royal Society of Chemistry.Google Scholar
Wilson, W. S. & Vaidyanathan, L. V. (1994). Mineral nitrogen from organic matter in East Anglian soils of different textural classes: its use by cereal crops with and without fertilizer nitrogen. In Humic Substances in the Global Environment and Implications on Human Health: Proceedings of the 6th International Meeting of the International Humic Substances Society, Monopoly (Bari), September 1992 (Eds Senesi, N. & Miano, T. M.), pp. 725–732. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science Publishers.Google Scholar