Corn yield related to different soil management systems, doses and N sources

Abstract

– Manure, if managed and used properly, is a good source of nutrients for crop production. To evaluate
the effects of manure and N fertilizer applied on soil surface on corn grain yields, in no-tillage and conventional
tillage systems, a field trial was carried out on a Red Latosol (Oxisol) in Chapecó, Santa Catarina State, Brazil.
The experiment was placed under randomized blocks design with split-plots and four replications.The main plots
were represented by different soil tillage (conventional tillage and no-tillage), and the sub-plots by doses of pig
slurry (zero, 60, 120 and 240kg N/ha) and sources of N (ammonium nitrate and poultry house litter), applied at
the dose of 120kg N/ha. Corn grain yield response was observed for all N sources. In all four years, pig slurry N
had similar efficiency to ammonium nitrate N on corn yield. In conventional tillage system there were no
significant differences on corn yield among the N sources but in no-tillage system the surface poultry house litter
application had a lower performance.There were no interaction effects of tillage and N rates (pig slurry) on corn
yields. The maximum grain yield was estimated with an annual application of 192kg N/ha of pig slurry.