Soil attributes and yield of corn and irrigated dry bean in an integrated crop‑livestock system

Abstract

The objective of this work was to evaluate changes in physical and chemical attributes of the soil, in the carrying capacity of pasture and on yield of corn and irrigated dry bean, in a crop-livestock system, under no-till. The field experiment was installed in an irrigated area with center pivot, at Santo Antônio de Goiás, state of Goiás, Brazil. The treatments, evaluated for three consecutive years, were: continuous pasture, annual succession of pasture/irrigated dry bean, annual succession of corn/pasture/irrigated dry bean and annual succession of corn/irrigated dry bean in the winter. Each plot, corresponding to a treatment, comprised an area of six hectares. The forage species used was Urochloa ruziziensis, grazed by halfbreed Gir x Holstein female cattle, with weight of approximately 450 kg. There was no significant change in the density and porosity of the soil under different treatments. Changes in the chemical attributes depended on the evaluated nutrients. All the successions with brachiaria grass increased the percentage of soil aggregates larger than 2 mm. The carrying capacity of pasture decreased as the number of grain crops increased in the annual succession. Productivity of dry bean was influenced by the annual succession involving pasture, which had no influence on corn yield.