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Relationship between N concentration of grain and grain yield in recent winter‐wheat experiments in England and Belgium, some with large yields
Author(s) -
Benzian Blanche,
Darby Richard J.,
Lane Peter,
Widdowson Frank V.,
Verstraeten Louis M. J.
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
journal of the science of food and agriculture
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 142
eISSN - 1097-0010
pISSN - 0022-5142
DOI - 10.1002/jsfa.2740340704
Subject(s) - grain yield , yield (engineering) , agronomy , winter wheat , soil water , wheat grain , mathematics , environmental science , biology , soil science , materials science , metallurgy
Eight winter‐wheat experiments conducted by Rothamsted on clay soils in 1980 and 1981 formed part of an inter‐institute collaborative programme on yield variation. The tests included no N and four amounts of fertiliser N up to 200 kg ha −1 , with and without spray treatments to control pests and diseases. Large grain yields—in excess of 10 t ha −1 —were often obtained, mainly where losses had been limited by sprays. In Belgium, 10 experiments during the same seasons were on a wider range of soils and had spray treatments applied to all plots. Yields exceeding 10 t ha −1 were obtained at one site. Graphs showing the inter‐relationship between grain‐N %, grain yield and N uptake are used to compare the recent results with those from a 20‐year study of similar data from 124 earlier Rothamsted experiments. The envelope curve delineating the range of yield and grain‐N % values from these older experiments enfolded most of the more recent data points, except those deriving from the largest yields which were associated almost entirely with grain‐N % values below the minimum recommended for British breadwheat. The largest grain‐N uptakes were 180–190 kg ha −1 and 170–180 kg ha −1 in the recent Rothamsted and Belgian experiments respectively, compared with 160‐170 kg in the older experiments. The linear or near‐linear relationship between grain‐N % and amounts of fertiliser N, established in the 20‐year study, was again observed in the recent Rothamsted and Belgian experiments, with about 38 kg of added N needed to increase grain‐N concentrations by 0.1%.