Publications
NIBIOs employees contribute to several hundred scientific articles and research reports every year. You can browse or search in our collection which contains references and links to these publications as well as other research and dissemination activities. The collection is continously updated with new and historical material.
2023
Authors
Håvard SteinshamnAbstract
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Abstract
Intensification and specialization of farming systems in Europe and elsewhere has resulted in poor crop rotations, with low plant and animal diversity. This has resulted in more uniform landscapes, soil carbon loss and low efficiency in nutrient cycling, particularly in regions dominated by annual crops. Inclusion of ley in crop rotations is expected to increase soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks, nitrogen availability and improve soil physical properties. The effect of ley-arable rotations versus continuous annual cropping on soil quality, soil organic carbon and soil biology was assessed by summarizing and discussing results from publications from long-term experiments in Norway and Sweden. These studies support the hypotheses that the inclusion of leys in crop rotations promotes soil fertility and carbon sequestration in Northern Europe, supplies nutrients to subsequent crops and improves soil physical properties. However, one or two years of ley in rotations may not be enough for maintaining SOC and good soil structure over time. For keeping the relatively high SOC concentrations occurring at many sites in Northern Europe, the proportion of ley in rotation should be at least 50%.
Abstract
Productive and stable forage yields are essential for the sustainability of ruminal livestock production. Grassland seed mixtures composed of species of diverse functional groups have previously been demonstrated to increase yield performance and stability compared to monocultures. In this study we conducted field trials with five grass and two legume species either grown in monocultures or a range of mixtures from two-species to seven-species mixtures sown in a simplex design. The species represented different functional groups regarding ability to fixate atmospheric nitrogen (N), rate of establishment and temporal persistence.The experiments were established with the same cultivars of species at five locations in Norway with climatically contrasting environments – from mild humid, mountainous continental to sub-arctic. The experimental plots were harvested for three years at four of the sites and two years at one of the sites, and they were fertilised according to normal practise in intensive silage grass production in the respective regions (regular N). At three of the sites, a treatment with low mineral N supply rate was also included.We found that crops sown as mixtures returned higher yields and contained less weeds than the average of monoculture crops, and these effects were consistent over all sites and study years. The grass-legume mixtures managed at low N supply rate performed equally well or better than monocultures or grass-only mixtures managed at regular N supply. We found no effects of the functional groups categorised as temporal persistence or rate of establishment on the yield performance, and there were no apparent benefits of increasing the number of species beyond the species P. pratense, F. pratensis and T. pratense over the three production years the experiments lasted.The results suggest that by using grass-clover mixtures, farmers can reduce N fertiliser rates, without compromising productivity of temporary grassland under northern conditions over the first three years of production.
Abstract
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Authors
Claire Morgan-Davies Germain Tesniere Cathy Dwyer Grete H. M. Jørgensen Eliel Gonzalez-Garcia Sotiris Patsios Evangeline Sossidou Tim Keady Brid McClearn Fiona Kenyon Gerrardo Caja Lise Grøva Mauro Decandia Ludovic Cziszter Ilan Halachmi Jean Marc GautierAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Tatiana Francischinelli Rittl Reidun Pommeresche Anders Johansen Håvard Steinshamn Hugh Riley Anne-Kristin LøesAbstract
Renewable energy in the form of biogas can be produced by anaerobic digestion (AD) of animal manure. However, there is still a lack of knowledge on the long-term effects of AD-treated manure on soil characteristics and crop productivity, compared with untreated manure. A field experiment was established in a perennial grass-clover ley in 2011 to study the effects on important soil and crop characteristics when the slurry from a herd of organically managed dairy cows is anaerobically digested. While the rate of manure application affected soil concentrations of extractable nutrients and pH, these variables were unaffected by AD. Soil organic matter (SOM) concentrations decreased in all plots and faster on the plots with high intrinsic SOM. The decrease was similar with application of untreated (non-digested) slurry (US) and anaerobically digested slurry (ADS), and it was not affected by application rates. The general decline may be explained by the initial high SOM content, the long-term effect of drainage, and higher temperatures with climatic change. US and ADS gave similar yields of grass-clover ley (2 cuts/year) and green fodder, on average 0.79 and 0.40 kg DM m−2, respectively. Clover yield was similar in manured treatments and the non-fertilized control. With respect to crop yields and chemical soil characteristics, long-term (10 years) effects of AD in an organic dairy cow farming system seem to be minor. The benefits of extracting energy from the slurry did not compromise grassland productivity or soil quality in the long term.
Authors
Odd Arne Rognli Trygve S. Aamlid Muath K Alsheikh Helga Amdahl Sigridur Dalmannsdottir Kristoffer Herland Hellton Marit Jørgensen Mallikarjuna Rao Kovi Therese Mæland Akhil Reddy Pashapu Ievina Sturite Thordis Linda Thorarinsdottir Susanne Skinnehaugen WindjuAbstract
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Authors
Kristoffer Herland Hellton Helga Amdahl Thordis Thorarinsdottir Muath K Alsheikh Trygve S. Aamlid Marit Jørgensen Sigridur Dalmannsdottir Odd Arne RognliAbstract
The perennial forage grass timothy (Phleum pratense L.) is the most important forage crop in Norway. Future changes in the climate will affect growing conditions and hence the yield output. We used data from the Norwegian Value for Cultivation and Use testing to find a statistical prediction model for total dry matter yield (DMY) based on agro-climatic variables. The statistical model selection found that the predictors with the highest predictive power were growing degree days (GDD) in July and the number of days with rain (>1mm) in June–July. These predictors together explained 43% of the variability in total DMY. Further, the prediction model was combined with a range of climate ensembles (RCP4.5) to project DMY of timothy for the decades 2050–2059 and 2090–2099 at 8 locations in Norway. Our projections forecast that DMY of today’s timothy varieties may decrease substantially in South-Eastern Norway, but increase in Northern Norway, by the middle of the century, due to increased temperatures and changing precipitation patterns.