Corn Yield and Nutrition as Affected by Perennial Forage Grasses Intercropping in a No-till System.

One of the limitations in no-till system in tropical regions is low mulch persistence on soil surface because of tropical conditions. Crop-livestock integration by intercropping corn with perennial forage grasses can provide feed pasture for cattle in fall/winter and straw on the soil surface in spring to maintain no-till system. This research aimed to evaluate corn yield and nutrition as affected by Brachiaria brizantha and Panicum maximum intercropping in no-till system. To reach the proposed objectives, it was carried on three simultaneous studies, carriers on at field conditions, during the cropping years of 2003/04, 2004/05 and 2005/06 at Lageado Experimental Farm in Botucatu, State of São Paulo, Brazil, in a structured Oxisol cultivated under no-tillage system. The experimental design was in blocks completely randomized, with four replicates. The treatments were: 1) Single corn; 2) corn with B. brizantha cv. Marandu sowed in the same furrow; 3) corn with B. brizantha cv. Marandu intercropped at side-dressing nitrogen fertilization; 4) corn with P. maximum cv. Mombaça sowed in the same furrow; 5) corn with P. maximum cv. Mombaça intercropped at side-dressing nitrogen fertilization. The intercropping systems do not decreased the corn grains yield. Corn with P. maximum cv. Mombaça intercropped at side-dressing nitrogen fertilization provided the highest N and S concentration in leaves. Intercropping provided higher P and K concentrations in leaves than single corn.