Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T03:18:40.177Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

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
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.
Get access

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.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1.ASAE Standards, 37th ed. 1990. D497. Agricultural machinery management data. Amer. Soc. Agric. Engineers, St. Joseph, Michigan.Google Scholar
2.Bhat, M.G., English, B.C., Turhollow, A.F., and Nyangito, H.O.. 1994. Energy in synthetic fertilizers and pesticides: Revisited. ORNL/Sub/90-99732/2. National Technical Information Service, Springfield, Virginia.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3.Buffjngton, J.D., and Zar, J.H.. 1977. Realistic and unrealistic energy conservation potential in agriculture. In Lockeretz, W. (ed). Agriculture and Energy. Academic Press, Inc., New York, N.Y. pp. 695711.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
4.Bullard, C.W., Penner, P.S., and Pilati, D.A.. 1976. Net energy analysis: Handbook for combining process and input-output analysis. CAC Document No. 214. Center for Advanced Computation, Univ. of Illinois, Urbana.Google Scholar
5.Chen, L.H., and Bateman, W.L.. 1988. A comparison of machinery cost estimation methods. ASAE Paper No. 88-1506. Amer. Soc. Agric. Engineers, St. Joseph, Michigan.Google Scholar
6.Doering, O.C. III., 1980. Accounting for energy in farm machinery and buildings. In Pimentel, D. (ed). Handbook of Energy Utilization in Agriculture. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, pp. 914.Google Scholar
7.Duck, B.N., and Tyler, D.D.. 1991. Adaptation of legume species as cover crops in no-till systems. In Hargrove, W.L. (ed). Cover Crops for Clean Water. Soil and Water Conservation Soc., Ankeny, Iowa. pp. 130131.Google Scholar
8.Ess, D.R. 1990. Energetics of low-input corn production. M.S. thesis. Dept. of Agric. Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State Univ., Blacksburg.Google Scholar
9.Fluck, R.C., and Baird, C.D.. 1980. Agricultural Energetics. AVI Publishing Co., Inc., Westport, Connecticut.Google Scholar
10.Frye, W.W., Smith, W.G., and Williams, R.J.. 1985. Economics of winter cover crops as a source of nitrogen for no-till corn. J. Soil and Water Conservation 40:246249.Google Scholar
11.Green, M.B. 1987. Energy in pesticide manufacture, distribution and use. In Helsel, Z.R. (ed). Energy in Plant Nutrition and Pest Control. Elsevier Science Publishing Company, Inc., New York, N.Y. pp. 165177.Google Scholar
12.Heichel, G.H. 1980. Assessing the fossil energy costs of propagating agricultural crops. In Pimentel, D. (ed). Handbook of Energy Utilization in Agriculture. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, pp. 2733.Google Scholar
13.Heichel, G.H. 1987. Legume nitrogen: Symbiotic fixation and recovery by subsequent crops. In Helsel, Z.R. (ed). Energy in Plant Nutrition and Pest Control. Elsevier Science Publishing Company, Inc., New York, N.Y. pp. 6380.Google Scholar
14.Lentner, M., and Bishop, T.. 1993. Experimental Design and Analysis. 2nd ed.Valley Book Co., Blacksburg, Virginia.Google Scholar
15.Mitchell, W.H., and Teel, M.R.. 1977. Winter annual cover crops for no-tillage corn production. Agronomy J. 69(4):569573.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
16.Mudahar, M.S., and Hignett, T.P.. 1987. Energy requirements, technology, and resources in the fertilizer sector. In Helsel, Z.R. (ed). Energy in Plant Nutrition and Pest Control. Elsevier Science Publishing Company, Inc., New York, N.Y. pp. 2561.Google Scholar
17.National Research Council. 1989. Alternative Agriculture. Board on Agriculture. National Academy Press, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
18.North American Equipment Dealers Assoc. 1990. Official guide—tractors and farm equipment. Fall 1990 ed. NAEDA Services, Inc., St. Louis, Missouri.Google Scholar
19.Ott, L. 1988. An Introduction to Statistical Methods and Data Analysis. 3rd ed.PWS-Kent Publishing Company, Boston, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
20.Ott, S.L., and Hargrove, W.L.. 1989. Profits and risks of using crimson clover and hairy vetch cover crops in notill corn production. Amer. J. Alternative Agric. 4:6570.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
21.Pimentel, D., Hurd, L.E., Bellotti, A.C., Forster, M.J., Oka, I.N., Sholes, O.D., and Whitman, R.J.. 1973. Food production and the energy crisis. Science 182:443449.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
22.SAS Institute Inc. 1989. SAS/STAT® User's Guide, Version 6, 4th ed. Volumes 1 and 2. SAS Institute, Inc., Cary, North Carolina.Google Scholar
23.Smil, V., Nachman, P., and Long, T.V. II., 1983. Energy Analysis and Agriculture: An Application to U.S. Corn Production. Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado.Google Scholar
24.Sullivan, P.G. 1990. Rye and vetch intercrops for reducing corn nitrogen fertilizer requirements and providing ground cover in the mid-Atlantic region. Ph.D. dissertation. Dept. of Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State Univ., Blacksburg.Google Scholar
25.U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. 1992. Fertilizer use and price statistics, 1960–1991. Statistical Bull. No. 842. Economic Research Service, Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
26.Virginia Agricultural Statistics Service. 1993. Virginia agricultural statistics 1992. Bull. No. 64. Richmond.Google Scholar
27.Walton, P.D. 1983. Production and Management of Cultivated Forages. Reston Publishing Co., Inc., Reston, Virginia.Google Scholar