Energy efficiency of sorghum and other grain crops cultivation in Donbass
A.V. Baranovsky, N.N. Timoshin, O.N. Kurdyukova
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Abstract. The article analyses the yield and bioenergy efficiency of spring grain crops cultivation for 2018–2022 in five-field crop rotation of the Department of Agriculture and Crop Production of the Lugansk State Agrarian University. It was found that under the conditions of warming and increasing aridity of the climate of the Lugansk People’s Republic the cultivation of grain sorghum medium-early hybrids such as Solarius, Sprint W (vegetation period 101–110 days or more) provided an increase in grain yield in comparison with spring barley variety Ratnik by 3.12–2.82 t/ha (110.6–104.1 %), and in comparison with grain corn medium-early hybrids (Lugansk 287 MB and Podolsky 274 CB) – by 2.08–1.70 t/ha (53.9–44.4 %). It was proved that when growing grain sorghum, replacement of autumn mouldboard plowing at a depth of 25–27 cm by shallow disc loosening at 12–14 cm significantly reduced the crop yield by 0.41 t/ha (6.9 %). When growing grain sorghum, the maximum experimental gross energy yield from 1 hectare of crops was obtained, which exceeded the accumulation of gross energy in the corn grain yield by 35263–29250 MJ/ha (60,4–50,5 %) and in the barley grain yield by 47294–42637 MJ/ha (101,9–95,6 %). This ensured the formation of the highest values of the energy efficiency coefficients (η) of sorghum cultivation – 4.37–4.11, which exceeded this indicator for grain corn by 2.32–2.0750 units, and for spring barley – by 1.67–1.50 units. The largest shares of gross energy costs in spring barley production were spent on fertilisers (33.2 %) and fuel and lubricants (24.5 %), and in grain sorghum production it was spent on fertilisers (28.2 %), fuel and lubricants (26.7 %) and grain cleaning and drying (14.3 %). The corn cultivation technology was the most energy-intensive (28491–28379 MJ/ha), as the share of total energy on the products by machinery and equipment reached 45.5 %, including 24.0 % on post-harvest cleaning and drying of grain, while the share of energy costs on fertilisers decreased to 18.1 % and on fuel and lubricants to 20.1 %.
Keywords: climate warming, sorghum, barley, corn, yield, energy efficiency
For citation. Baranovsky A.V., Timoshin N.N., Kurdyukova O.N. Energy efficiency of sorghum and other grain crops cultivation in Donbass. News of the Kabardino-Balkarian Scientific Center of RAS. 2024. Vol. 26. No. 5. Pp. 147–159. DOI: 10.35330/1991-6639-2024-26-5-147-159