Winter annual management to increase nutrient recovery and forage production on dairies

Management of manure and cereal rye (Secale cereale L.) has implications for crop production and nutrient cycling. This 1-yr, full-factorial experiment conducted in Pennsylvania quantified the effects of three management factors—(a) rye management (RyeM; early-terminated cover crop [CC] vs. double crop harvested a week later [DC]), (b) manure application method (ManM; unincorporated broadcast manure [BM] vs. shallow disk injected manure [IM]), and (c) fall field operation prioritization (priority; manure priority [MP] manure application in late September with rye planting in mid-October vs. rye priority [RP], rye planting in late September with manure application in early November)—on rye biomass, nutrient recovery, and forage yield and the effect of ManM and priority on DC forage nutritive value in a rye–corn (Zea mays L.) cropping sequence. This experiment was intended to be a repeated 2-yr study, but due to MP treatment rye crop failure in the second year, the resulting 1-yr dataset was analyzed to assess priority effects. Prioritizing rye planting in the fall with DC increased total forage production and apparent N recovery (ANR) when manure was broadcast. These results highlight the value of prioritizing fall rye planting in DC systems to increase rye spring biomass and nutrient recovery when manure is broadcast. More experiments should be conducted on fall field operation timing to develop reliable recommendations.