Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 3.3 Examples for proportions (%) of typical crop groups (Freyer 2003)
Farm structure
Legumes
Cereals
Root crops
Coer crops
30-50 A
Mixed farm (milk cows)
30-50
5-15
20-50
25-40 B
Mixed farm (various animals)
40-60
10-20
20-50
20-35 C
Mixed farm (pigs)
50-60
15-25
40-60
25-30 D
40-60 20-30 40-60
A Mainly forage legumes; B forage legumes (>50%), grain legumes; C grain legumes, forage legumes, propagation of
cover seeds, set-aside; D grain legumes, forage legumes, propagation of cover seeds, set-aside.
Arable farm
improvements in soil organisms, soil structure, soil management, trafficability, infiltration
rate, and mineralisation rate.
In regions where rainfall is lower and/or less reliable, such as in Western Australia, simpler
rotations with longer pasture or fallow phases are more likely. If the soil is heavier, with better
nutrient and water retention, a suitable organic crop rotation would be pasture (vetch or medic
Medicago spp. hay) > pasture > wheat > chickpeas > fallow > wheat. However, on lighter
sandier soils, the rotation would consist of pasture > pasture (green manure) > wheat > oats or
simply pasture > pasture > wheat (McCoy and Parlevliet 2001).
Additional benefits derived from cover cropping include weed and disease suppression.
Approaches for managing weeds are discussed below; however, the main mechanism of weed
suppression by cover crops appears to be resource competition, rather than factors such as
allelopathy (Bond and Grundy 2001). The different occurrence of the fungal pathogen
Table 3.4 Favourable and unfavourable rotational pairs (Baeumer 1992)
1, very unfavourable; 2, unfavourable; 3, possible; 4, favourable; 5, very favourable.
Succeeding crops
Preceding
crops
Grass-clover
(perennial)
1
5
1
4
1
1
1
5
5
4
4
2
2
Winter rape
3
1
1
4
2
3
3
4
5
4
4
1
1
Sugar beet
3
1
1
4
2
2
2
5
5
1
1
4
3
Potatoes
3
5
5
2
2
2
2
5
5
5
5
4
3
Sunflower
3
1
4
4
1
4
4
4
5
5
5
4
4
Faba beans
2
1
2
5
1
1
1
5
5
4
4
3
3
Field peas
2
4
4
4
1
1
1
4
5
5
5
3
3
Maize (grain &
silage)
3
1
5
5
5
5
5
3
4
2
2
4
4
Winter wheat
4
2
5
5
5
5
5
5
1
3
3
3
4
Winter barley
5
5
5
5
5
4
4
4
1
2
2
2
3
Winter rye
5
5
5
5
5
4
4
4
1
1
2
2
3
Spring barley
5
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
3
1
2
2
1
Oats
5
4
5
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
2
1
 
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