Eurico Lucas de Sousa Neto

Atributos físicos do solo e produtividade de milho em resposta a culturas de pré-safra

The objective of this work was to evaluate soil physical attributes and corn productivity of a Typic Hapludox in system including cover crops before corn. During four years the following cover crop species were used: sunn hemp (Crotalaria juncea); millet (Pennisetum americanum sin. tiphoydes); lab-lab (Dolichus lablab) in no-tillage system. An additional treatment was used with a tillage system composed of a disk plow and two harrowing. The experiment was set up in randomized block with split-plot design, with four repetitions. Undisturbed soil samples were collected for physical determinations and corn yield was evaluated in 22.5 m2 areas. The cover crop treatments in no-tillage promoted bigger aggregate stability and bulk density in the superficial layer, but did not affect the available water to the plants. The lab-lab cultivated prior to corn promoted smaller corn yield. The utilization of cover crop before main cash crop in no-tillage system improve soil quality in Sao Paulo State, Brazil.

Compaction of an Oxisol and chemical composition of palisadegrass

Compaction is an important problem in soils under pastoral land use, and can make livestock systems unsustainable. The objective of this research was to study the impact of soil compaction on yield and quality of palisade (UROCHLOA BRIZANTHA cv. Marandu). The experiment was conducted on an Oxisol in the State of Mato Grosso, Brazil. Treatments consisted of four levels of soil compaction: no compaction (NC), slight compaction (SC), medium compaction (MC) and high compaction (HC). The following soil properties were evaluated (layers 0-0.05 and 0.05-0.10 m): aggregate size distribution, bulk density (BD), macroporosity, microporosity, total porosity (TP), relative compaction (RC), and the characteristics of crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF) and dry matter yield (DMY) of the forage. Highly compacted soil had high BD and RC, and low TP (0-0.05 m). Both DMY and CP were affected by HC, and both were strongly related to BD. Higher DMY (6.96 Mg ha-1) and CP (7.8 %) were observed in the MC treatment (BD 1.57 Mg m-3 and RC 0.91 Mg m-3, in 0-0.05 m). A high BD of 1.57 Mg m-3 (0-0.05 m) did not inhibit plant growth. The N concentration in the palisade biomass differed significantly among compaction treatments, and was 8.72, 11.20, 12.48 and 10.98 g kg-1 in NC, SC, MC and HC treatments, respectively. Increase in DMY and CP at the MC level may be attributed to more absorption of N in this coarse-textured soil.

Desenvolvimento de capim Xaraés e fertilidade de Latossolo Vermelho adubado com resíduo ruminal bovino

This study evaluated the application of increasing doses (0, 10, 21 and 84 Mg ha-1) of the dried bovine rumen residue (BRR) (90.00% DM) or wet (7.16% DM) with nitrogen content (N) of 1.43% in the DM, considering that only 33% of N of the BRR would be available to meet the requirement of Urochloa brizantha cv. Xaraes of 0, 50, 100 and 400 kg N ha-1, on the fertility of an Oxisol (pH in water, exchangeable cations, P, N and organic matter) after 30 days of organic fertilization and on the production of dry biomass (BIO), height, levels of nitrogen (N) and crude protein (CP) after 60 and 120 days of cultivation of the Xaraes. A completely randomized design was used in 4 x 2 factorial (four doses of fertilizer BRR and two conditions of RRB dry matter) with three replications. The application of increasing doses of dry or wet BRR increased linearly (p < 0.05) the levels of N, P, K and organic matter of soil. Different doses of dry or wet BRR increased linearly (p <0.05) the dry BIO, the contents of N and CP of the grass Xaraes after 60 days of cultivation, but a quadratic effect (p < 0.05) was verified for the contents of N and CP of the grass Xaraes after 120 days of cultivation. Thus, the Urochloa brizantha cv. Xaraes presented higher production of dry BIO, regardless of the harvest period and the condition of the DM of BRR at the application time.