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Subterranean Clover Cover Crop Used to Increase Rice Yield

USDA-ARS, Natl. Sedimentation Lab., P.O. Box 1157, Oxford, MS 38655
Dep. of Agronomy
Dep. of Plant Path. and Crop Physiol., Louisiana State Univ. Agric. Ctr., Baton Rouge, LA 70803
Dep. of Agronomy

^* Corresponding author.

Management systems for flooded rice (Oryza sativa L.) production that include a winter legume cover crop and no-till planting are of interest to farmers seeking lower-cost production methods. Field experiments were performed at Crowley and Baton Rouge, LA. The purpose was to determine the effects of N fertilization (0, 56, 112, and 168 kg urea-N ha^–1) and tillage (rototilling or no-tillage) on the yield and yield components of rice planted in fallow plots or in plots containing subterranean clover (Trifolium subterraneum L.) that had produced mature seed. Rice was dry-seeded 1 wk after clover was desiccated with an herbicide or tilled into the soil. A permanent flood was established 30 d after planting. The presence of a clover cover crop increased rice yields about 10% in tilled and no-till plots receiving various rates of N fertilizer. Flag-leaf N concentrations and the amounts of total N assimilated into above-ground biomass at harvest were greater in rice after clover than in rice after fallow, but the presence of a winter clover cover did not reduce the amount of N fertilizer required to produce maximum yield. The maximum yields of rice obtained by no-till management were similar to or greater than those obtained by tillage. After rice harvest, stands of reseeded subterranean clover were better in no-till plots than in plots where clover residues had been incorporated into the soil prior to rice planting.

Received for publication January 11, 1988.