Forage Availability Using Conservation Agriculture in North Central Mexico.

Conservation tillage has not successfully adopted by farmers in the north-central region of Mexico as in other Latin American countries because of the use of crop residues to feed animals. As an alternative to this problem, a corn-oat rotation was established with the following objectives: i) to increase the quantity of forage available for animals and ii) to reduce production costs. Maize was sowed during the Spring-Summer growing season and oat during the Fall. Seven tillage methods were evaluated: traditional plow and disk (P+D), with and without disturbing the upper 0-10 cm layer, and zero tillage with 0, 33, 66, and 100% soil cover with crop residues (CR). A randomized block design with two replicates was used. Maize stubble yield with zero tillage + 66% CR was increased 3.431 ton ha^-1 compared to P+D, however, oat forage yield was statistical equal among all treatments. Adding maize stubble and oat forage yields, the total availability of forage per year was increased 25% with conservation tillage methods compared to conventional tillage. Conservation tillage reduced soil preparation costs by 50%. Conclusion of this study was that the maize-oat rotation system increased total forage availability, allowing farmers to keep at least 2 t ha^-1 as soil cover.