Short Communication

Effect of varying degrees of plant residue cover from different crops on annual medic pasture re-establishment and production

Published in: South African Journal of Plant and Soil
Volume 34 , issue 1 , 2017 , pages: 75–78

DOI: 10.1080/02571862.2016.1183148

Author(s): Andries A Le Roux Directorate Plant Sciences, Western Cape Department of Agriculture, South Africa , Johann A Strauss Directorate Plant Sciences, Western Cape Department of Agriculture, South Africa , Petrus J Pieterse Department of Agronomy, South Africa

Keywords: allelopathy , annual medic re-establishment , conservation agriculture , medic production , rotational cropping

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Abstract

Annual medics can play an important role as a pasture crop in short-rotation pasture-cropping systems in the Overberg district of South Africa. Permanent soil cover, an important aspect of conservation agriculture, and different crops in rotation may be, amongst other factors, detrimental to annual medic re-establishment and production. A field study was conducted to test re-establishment and subsequent production of medic pasture under varying degrees of cover (0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% cover) from wheat, barley, oats and annual medic residues. Medic pastures showed the highest re-establishment and production if following wheat in a cropping system. The re-establishment and production of annual medics did not differ significantly from 0% to 75% cover, whilst 100% cover decreased re-establishment and production significantly.

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