Economic Feasibility of Corn Cultivation for Grain in the Volga-Vyatka Region of Russia

Abstract:

Low-fertile sod-podzolic soils of Chuvashia studied the influence of traditional, minimal and zero tillage on the yield and quality of corn grain. Traditional technology of maize cultivation for grain included disc discarding of stubble of spring wheat to a depth of 4–6 cm, peeling, dumping of plow for 20–22 cm, pre-sowing cultivation for 4–6 cm with simultaneous harrowing, sowing and packing. The system with minimal soil cultivation was based on autumn disking and stubble sinking to a depth of 6–10 cm, spring pre-sowing cultivation for 8–10 cm and sowing with the Amazone seed drill. At no-till processing in the autumn period, the herbicide was sprayed with a continuous Zero action and a direct sowing of maize by the Amazone complex in the spring. Research conducted on a highly efficient hybrid of the ROSS 199 MV universal direction showed the advantages of no-till of the ground before the minimal and traditional technologies. The coefficient of energy efficiency in this case was 2.11 (with the traditional - 2.02, with the minimum - 2.10), and the profitability level increased by 3.6 and 1.5% compared to traditional and minimal tillage. Biochemical analysis revealed that the corn grain at zero processing is not inferior in quality to the control variant. In all variants of the experiment, 1 kg of grain corresponded to 1.42 feed units and 13.01-13.05 MJ of exchange energy.