Cover crops in succession to corn for silage in cerrado conditions

Abstract

Although some studies on cover crops in grain production areas have been developed in recent years, information on cover crops in succession to corn silage are still scarce. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of different cover crops on the accumulation of nutrients and dry mass yield (DM) in shoots of corn plants in silage production area in the central region of Minas Gerais. The experiment was carried out in two different harvests: 2012/2013 and 2013/2014, which eigth treatments were used consisted of six cover species (turnip, millet, B. ruzziziensis, B. decumbens, crotalaria and sunflower), in addition to a treatment comprising the mixture of millet and crotalaria species and fallow area representing control treatment. The experiment was conducted in a randomized block design with four replications. In the two years of cultivation, the total quantities of nutrients accumulated in the shoots of corn plants did not vary with cover crops, except for the amount of Fe. In two crops, DM yield of corn shoots did not vary according to the different cover crops. The absence of response in corn yield was attributed to lack of adequate moisture for growing corn due to dry spells during harvests.