ABSTRACT
An experiment was carried out at the field units of
the north campus experimental areas in Northwest
Agriculture and Forestry University, Yangling, Shaanxi Province, P. R. China. The experiment was conducted on summer season (June to September) to determine the effects of different planting patterns
of maize and soybean intercropping in resource consumption on fodder yield and silage quality. The main treatments were
one sole crop of maize (SM) and four
maize-soybean intercropping patterns (1 row maize to 1 row soybean
(1M1S), 1 row maize to 2 rows soybean (1M2S), 1 rows maize to 3 rows soybean
(1M3S) and 2 rows maize to 1 row soybean (2M1S), respectively. The experiment
was a randomized complete block design with three replications, and plot size
of 12 m by 5 m. The crops were harvested when the maize reached at milk stage
and soybean at R7 stage. The result indicated significant increase in fresh
biomass and dry matter production of maize fodder alone as compared to maize intercropped
with soybean fodder. It was correlated with a higher consumption of
environmental resources, such as photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) and
soil moisture by intercropping. After 45 days of ensiling period, silage
samples were analyzed for pH, organic acids (Lactic,
acetic, and butyric), dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), ether extract
(EE), neutral detergent fibre (NDF), acid detergent fibre (ADF), calcium (Ca),
sodium (Na), phosphorus (P), magnesium (Mg), and potassium (K). It was concluded
that in all intercropped silages, crude protein (CP) values were higher (1M1S, 12.1%; 1M2S, 12.2%; 1M3S, 12.4%;
2M1S, 12.1%) than the monocrop maize
(SM, 8.7%) silage. Higher organic acids (p < 0.05) were produced in
the 1M3S silages as compared to others silages. The study indicated that among all intercropped silages, the 1M3S (1
row maize to 3 rows soybean) was
preferable according to nutrient composition than other intercropped
silages.