Cover Crops and Forage in Nutrient Cycling and Their Utilization in Integrated Crop–Livestock Systems

A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Farming Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2025 | Viewed by 190

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Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária, Embrapa Meio-Norte, Av. Duque de Caxias, 5650, Bairro Buenos Aires, Teresina 64008-780, Brazil
Interests: land use change; modeling; soil health; soil organic matter
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Guest Editor
Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa Meio-Norte), Research and Development Sector, Duque de Caxias Av., 5650, Teresina 64008-780, Brazil
Interests: soil and crop management; soil quality; soil biology; soil–plant interactions
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa Meio-Norte), Research and Development Sector, Duque de Caxias Av., 5650, Teresina 64008-780, Brazil
Interests: plant nutrition; soil fertility; crop–livestock–forest integration; nutrient management in crop production
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Crop–livestock integration has been shown to be an effective practice for improving crop yields and animal production efficiency. Crop–livestock integration comprises numerous technologies like no tillage, cover crops, rotation and/or crop sequencing. When evaluating the effects of water and nutrient availability in soil and biomass production in integrated systems during the development of crop plants and forages, studies have shown that the maintenance of optimal nutrient levels increases the yield of cover crops and forages and their quality and impacts crop sequence, decisive factors for increasing soil health, plant and animal production, and the stability of crop yield. Thus, the success of agricultural activities requires the adoption of more sustainable systems based on the rational use of resources, allowing for the reversal of soil degradation and increased productivity.

Topics of interest for this Special Issue include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Yields and quality of forage and/or cover crops in crop–livestock integration.
  • Nutrient use efficiency for crop–livestock integration.
  • Drought stress and its relationship with nutrients absorption and/or biomass production for crop–livestock integration.
  • Practices that promote improvements in soil health and moisture for crop–livestock integration.

Dr. Luiz Fernando Carvalho Leite
Dr. Edvaldo Sagrilo
Dr. Henrique Antunes de Souza
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • soil quality
  • grassland
  • crop rotation

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

17 pages, 4837 KiB  
Article
Cover Crops Optimize Soil Fertility and Soybean Productivity in the Cerrado of MATOPIBA, Brazil
by Hosana Aguiar Freitas de Andrade, Edvaldo Sagrilo, José Oscar Lustosa de Oliveira Júnior, Daiane Conceição de Sousa, Carlos Pedro de Menezes Costa, Paula Muniz Costa, Raimundo Bezerra de Araújo Neto, Rosa Maria Cardoso Mota de Alcantara, Luiz Fernando Carvalho Leite, Mariléia Barros Furtado, Marcelo Javier Beltrán, Nicolas Cafaro La Menza and Henrique Antunes de Souza
Agronomy 2025, 15(5), 1083; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy15051083 - 29 Apr 2025
Abstract
The main challenge of soybean cultivation in Brazil’s last agricultural frontier is to ensure sustainable production. This study aimed to evaluate the use of cover crops (CC) to improve soil fertility, plant nutrition, and soybeans productivity grown in the Cerrado of Brazil. The [...] Read more.
The main challenge of soybean cultivation in Brazil’s last agricultural frontier is to ensure sustainable production. This study aimed to evaluate the use of cover crops (CC) to improve soil fertility, plant nutrition, and soybeans productivity grown in the Cerrado of Brazil. The study was carried out on a farm located in the state of Maranhão, Brazil, with nine treatments, fallow and CC preceding soybean cultivation: (i) Millet (Pennisetum glaucum L.); (ii) Marandu (Urochloa brizantha); (iii) Ruziziensis (Urochloa ruziziensi); (iv) Tanzania (Megathyrsus maximum); (v) Massai (Megathyrsus maximum); (vi) cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L.); (vii) pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan L.); and (viii) Crotalaria (Crotalaria juncea). An analysis for the characterization of the biomass of cover crops and fallow was carried out. Soil chemical and biological properties, soybean foliar nutrient concentrations, and the soybean seed yield and quality grown in sequence to the CC were also analyzed. Soil microbial carbon was favored by the cultivation of ‘Marandu’, ‘Ruziziensis’, ‘Tanzania’, and cowpea. Nutrient cycling promoted by CC contributed to the maintenance of soil quality and increases in the leaf nutrient concentrations of soybeans. The cultivation of millet, ‘Tanzania’, ‘Massai’, cowpea, and C. juncea increased the soybean yield. Cover crops improved soil fertility while increasing soybean productivity, thus being an effective strategy for the achievement of sustainable soybean production. Full article
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