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Energy and economic savings from the use of legume cover crops in Virginia corn production

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 October 2009

D.R. Ess ,
D.H. Vaughan ,
J.M. Luna  and
P.G. Sullivan
D.R. Ess
Affiliation:
National Science Foundation Fellow, Department of Biological Systems Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061current address: Department of Agricultural Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907
D.H. Vaughan
Affiliation:
Professor, Department of Biological Systems Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University;
J.M. Luna
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor, Department of Horticulture, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331;
P.G. Sullivan
Affiliation:
Technical Specialist, Appropriate Technology Transfer for Rural Areas, Fayetteville, AR 72702.
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Abstract

Energy analysis provides a measure of the effectiveness of sustainable agricultural systems in reducing inputs purchased from off-farm sources. This study compares the total (direct plus indirect) energy costs of growing corn for silage using manufactured N fertilizer or N-fixing legume cover crops. The cover crop either was killed with herbicide in a no-till system or disked in the spring. Economically competitive alternative crop production practices are identified.

In both the no-till and the disked versions, cover-cropped treatments used about half as much energy per hectare as the corresponding winter fallow N-fertilizer treatments. Using vetch to provide N significantly lowered energy use per unit of crop output compared with the N-fertilized treatments. For the treatments that used hairy vetch, either alone or in combination with big/lower vetch, net revenue was statistically equivalent to that of standard-practice treatments in each year of the study.

Keywords

legumesnitrogen fertilizervetchno-till
Type
Research Article
Information
American Journal of Alternative Agriculture , Volume 9 , Issue 4 , December 1994 , pp. 178 - 185
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

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