Cotton Yields Improve in Pulse Rotation

SYDNEY - Mar 22/04 - SNS -- Including a pulse such as vetch into crop rotations have a clear, positive impact on cotton lint yields, according to a team of researchers at CSIRO Plant Industry.

Following an eight-year study the team found that vetch fixes large amounts of nitrogen, increases soil organic matter, improves soil structure, makes cultivation easier, increases soil water holding capacity and reduces the incidence of black root rot.

"Data from 2003 show when vetch is used the cotton gross margin per hectare is increased by $390 within continuous cotton rotation and by $270 in wheat/cotton rotation due to the reduced need for nitrogen fertilizer and increased lint yield," says Dr Ian Rochester, CSIRO Plant Industry.

"Vetch is so efficient at fixing nitrogen that on average only about a third of the usual nitrogen fertilizer is needed to maximize cotton yields in the following cotton crop and, in some cases, no additional fertilizer is needed at all."

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