The Energy Effectiveness Of Crops In Crop Rotation Under Different Soil Tillage Systems

Abstract

The paper identifies and compares the energy balance of winter wheat, spring barley and white mustard – all grown in crop rotation under different tillage conditions. The field trial included the conventional tillage (CT) method, minimum tillage (MT) and a system with no tillage (NT). The energy inputs included both the direct and indirect energy component. Energy outputs are evaluated as gross calorific value (gross heating value of phytomass dry matter) of the primary product and the total harvested production. The energy effectiveness (energy output: energy input) was selected for evaluation. The greatest energy effectiveness for the primary product was established as 6.35 for barley, 6.04 for wheat and 3.68 for mustard; in the case of total production, it was 9.82 for barley, 10.08 for wheat and 9.72 for mustard. When comparing the different tillage conditions, the greatest energy effectiveness was calculated for the evaluated crops under the MT operation and represented the primary product of wheat at 6.49, barley at 6.69 and mustard at 3.92. The smallest energy effectiveness for the primary product was found in wheat 5.77 and barley 6.10 under the CT option; it was 3.55 for mustard under the option of NT. Throughout the entire cropping pattern, the greatest energy effectiveness was established under the minimum tillage option – 5.70 for the primary product and 10.47 for the total production. On the other hand, the smallest values were calculated under CT – 5.22 for the primary product and 9.71 for total production.

Keywords

• energy balance
• winter wheat
• spring barley
• white mustard
• soil tillage systems
• yields