The influence of mineral fertilizers and sowing terms on the yield of green mass of corn in the forest-steppe zone of the Trans-Urals

Corn is well established as a high-yielding crop, which is an indispensable component in the diet of farm animals. This is due to the fact that corn has a high nutritional value, which is 25-50 % higher than in other crops. Positive effect on spreading of this crop was the possibility of its using for various purposes: grain, silage, cornage. Great contribution to spreading of corn in the northern regions of the country made rapid development of growing and selection of early-matured hybrids able to show good yields of green mass of corn with a high proportion of grain and significant content of dry matter, which favorably affected nutritional value of feed and profitability of production. The purpose of the researches was to establish the influence of mineral fertilizers and the terms of seeding crops on the productivity of green material of corn in a forest-steppe zone of Trans-Urals. The research was carried out in the forest-steppe zone of the Trans-Urals, on leached chernozem. The experiment provided for sowing at a soil temperature of 8-10 and 10-12 °C. To obtain a high-energy corn silo requires a significant proportion of dry matter and a large content of grain mass; it was decided to calculate the doses of fertilizers for the planned yield of corn silo. It was found that natural fertility of leached chernozem provided 26.6 t/hectare of green mass. The application of mineral fertilizers increased the yield of green mass by 27-64 % compared to the control. The yield of corn grain at the control was 9.1 t/hectare at humidity of 41 %. On fertilized variants, it increased by 14 t / hectare, while the humidity increased by 44 %. The maximum content of dry matter was received at the control with an increase in the level of mineral nutrition, dry matter decreased by 1-5 %. Sowing at the soil temperature of 10-12 °C contributed to the increase in the yield of green mass of corn by 13-27 %. However, the proportion of grain and dry matter content sharply decreased.