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VARIABLE RATE NITROGEN APPLICATION ON WINTER WHEAT FIELDS IN CENTRAL EUROPE CONDITION: IMPACT ON QUALITATIVE PARAMETERS OF GRAIN AND CONTENT OF NITROGEN IN PLANT

Jakub Elbl, Vojtech Lukas, Jan Hladky, Jindrich Kynicky, Martin Brtnicky

Abstract

Variable rate application (VRA) of mineral nitrogen fertilizers (NF) represents one of the parts of the new farming practice пїЅ precision agriculture. VRA has been developed to address the spatial variability of fields and vegetation. The objective of this study was to assess the potential effect of VRA of NF on qualitative parameters of grain and grain yield in real farm conditions. Assessment of the potential effect of VAR of NF application was performed in Spearhead Czech Company which has been using VAR technologies since 2012. The application of NF has been carried out based on the yield potential map created by AGRO-SAT Company for the area of over 1 500 ha since 2012. Every year, variable rate application was realized for the second and third nitrogen topdressing of winter wheat in three different rates - the highest doses of NF were applied into the zones with the highest expected yield and conversely. During the vegetation period, plant and grain sampling was carried out within each zone and the results were compared with the fields where uniform application (UNI) was realized. The positive effect (P < 0.05) of VRA on qualitative parameters and content of N in plant was found in all years of the field experiment. The content of N compounds and gluten in grain was by about 7 % higher at VRA than uniform application. On the other hand, only small effect of VRA was observed on the total grain yield. Moreover, the results showed that VRA of NF affected the N content in plants. Presented study confirms site specific application of nitrogen fertilizers influenced positively the grain quality parameters while keeping the crop yield level equal to the uniform application.

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DOI resolver: doi.org/10.5593/sgem2017/23/s11.106

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