Qualidade física de um vertissolo e produção forrageira em campo nativo melhorado, com irrigação e pastoreio

Abstract

The predominant production system in North central Uruguay is based on the combined beef cattle and sheep cattle grazing of native grasslands. Soils include an important area of Pelluderts, with high content of expansible clays and high organic matter in the surface horizon. At the beginning of the 90 s there was a rapid expansion in rice production in this part of the country, increasing soil use intensity. Rice is grown in rotations with seeded pastures. Due to variations in annual forage production because variations of the hydric regime, irrigation technology was studied as an alternative to achieve greater inter-annual production stability. The effect of soil compaction, is to be considered when managing Vertisols especially in low soil use intensity situations, like natural pastures improved by overseeding and fertilization, or the more intense rice pastures rotation. The objectives of this research were to quantify the effects of animal trampling, as compared with rice harvesting, on the physical quality of the Vertisols and to obtain a quantitative relationship between rain plus irrigation water input and forrage production. Two experiments were conducted in the basaltic experimental field of INIA-Tacuarembó-Uruguay, to evaluate the effects of irrigation and animal compaction on the improved natural pasture. Another on farm experiment was also conducted to evaluate soil compaction due to rice cropping and harvesting. Physical quality results, showed animal trampling compaction effect in the surface layer (0-3 cm), but not in subsurface (9-12 cm), due animal trampling on bulk density, total porosity, macroporosity, microporosity, compressibility, and penetration resistance. In the rice field, effects of soil deformation by harvesting-combine traffic were evident to 20 cm depth under of high soil moisture conditions.Forage production did not show differences between the irrigation frequencies used in a rainy year (2003). Meanwhile in a dry year (2004), the irrigation treatments produced more (425 %) than the non irrigated, and the one irrigated more frequently produced more (35 %) between the two irrigated ones. General response to water was 8.95 kg MS ha-1 mm-1. Red clover showed greater response than white clover. The effect of animal trampling was significant on forage yield production of red clover, but there was no effect on white clover production. The botanical composition, in a dry year, showed loss of legume presence without irrigation.