The Effects of Intercrop Spacing Patterns on the Silage Yield of Maize and Soybean |
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| Authors: | R C Martin H D Voldeng D L Smith |
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| Institution: | Plant Research Centre, Agriculture Canada |
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| Abstract: | The effects of intercrop spacing patterns on the silage yields of both maize (lea mays L.) and soybean (Glycine max L.] Merr.) were examined from 1985 to 1987. Dwarf maize was intercropped with nonnodulatmg or nodulating soybean in the spacing patterns, S40same (two crops in the same row, 40 cm row width) and S20ait or S40ak (two crops in alternate rows, 20 cm or 40 cm row width, respectively). Tall maize was intercropped with nodulating soybean in S40sames S40alt and S40pair (maize in 40 cm paired rows, soybean rows 20 cm outside each maize row and 80 cm from the next set of four rows) at 0 or 60 kg N ha?1 and at population densities of 67% maize: 67% soybean or 50 % maize: 50% soybean. Maize and soybean were also intercropped and stripcropped on a farm-scale. The only difference between intercrops arranged in the same rows versus those in alternate rows was that the average soybean protein yields were higher in S40same than in S40alt. In 1986, the S40alt maize-soybean intercrops produced higher maize yields, total biomass yields and Land Equivalent Ratios (LERs) than in S40pirs, and in 1987, these responses were higher in intercrops than in stripcrops. In 1986, at 0 kg N ha?1, the soybean biomass and protein yields were lower in S40alt, than in S40pairs and in 1987, these responses were lower in intercrops than in stripcrops. |
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| Keywords: | Maize soybean intercrop stripcrop spacing pattern |
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