YIELD AND QUALITY OF WINTER WHEAT GRAIN UNDER NON-MOLDBOARD SOIL TILLAGE DEPENDING ON DOSES OF MINERAL FERTILIZERSIN THE CROP ROTATIONS OF THE CENTRAL CHERNOZEM REGION

Abstract

In modern agriculture, resource-saving technologies for cultivating grain crops and their optimization are becoming more and more relevant. The use of scientifically-based crop rotations, tillage methods and doses of mineral fertilizers allow increasing economic efficiency of winter wheat cultivation. The purpose of the research was to assess the yield and quality of winter wheat grain depending on different doses of mineral fertilizers under non-moldboard soil tillage in the crop rotations of the Central Chernozem Region. The research was carried out in 2012-2020 in a stationary multifactorial field experiment in Federal Agricultural Kursk Research Center. The experimental design included the following options: Factor A – crop rotations (grain-fallow-row, grain-grass-row, grain-grass); Factor B – mineral fertilizers (without fertilizers, N20P40K40, N40P80K80 kg ha-1). The soil of the experimental site is represented by typical, medium-loamy chernozem. The paper shows that the yield of winter wheat grain in the context of non-moldboard soil tillage was higher in the grain-fallow-row crop rotation and amounted to 3.34 t ha-1. In the grain-grass-row and grain-grass crop rotations, yield decreased by 6.6 % and 10.2 %, respectively. The maximum grain yield (3.98 t/ha-1) was obtained in grain-fallow-row crop rotation with N40P80K80. An increase in fertilizers doses led to protein and gluten content increment from 12.6 to 13.3 % and from 22.8 to 25.6 %, respectively; however, the differences in crop rotations were within the limits of experimental error. The grain nature varied according to the studied factors from 708 to 735 g/l-1 and was higher in the grain-fallow-row crop rotation with a dose of mineral fertilizers N40P80K80. Despite more significant net income after increased fertilizers dose (N40P80K80), the increase in the winter wheat grain yield did not allow obtaining a higher level of profitability compared to N20P40K40. Winter wheat cultivation in grain-grass-row crop rotation with N20P40K40 was the most cost-effective. In this variant, the cost of grain was the lowest (4.92 thousand rubles t-1); the profitability, on the contrary, was the highest (103.4 %).