Optimisation of organic crop rotations

Abstract

Nitrogen as a nutritive element is of high importance for yield formation of agricultural crops. Due to the ban on synthetic chemical N-fertilizers in organic agriculture the cultivation of high N-demanding crops is difficult. Hof Ritzerau’s subproject Agronomy is testing four strategies to improve N-supply and N-efficiency of organic farming systems: 1. Optimisation of N-fluxes in organic crop rotations through variation of the percentage of N2-fixing legume crops in the crop rotation 2. Improvement of green manure and grass-clover management with special regard to the option of winter grazing. 3. Optimisation of N-supply of organic grown cereals through site-specific application of organic manure 4. Development of a minimum tillage cereal cropping system for organic farming: "Bi-cropping" of cereals and N2-fixing white clover.

Keywords

Year-round grazing, Precison farming, Nitrate leaching, Bi-cropping

Subproject Information

Project runtime: Since 2001-10-01

Scientific coordination: Prof. Dr. Friedhelm Taube; Dr. Ralf Loges

Former staff: MSc. Derk Westphal; MSc. David Nannen; Dr. Helge Neumann