Effects of increasing fertilization in organic farming fodder cultivation and market crop systems

Summary

In 1992, on experimental stations of the Saxony State Institute of Agriculture, two organic field trials were set up on loamy sand and a loess loam in western Saxony, eastern Germany. In these long-term field trials questions of fodder cultivation and market crop systems, crop rotations with legume-grass, wheat and maize, different organic fertilizer regimes and nutrient cycling were analyzed regarding their effects on soil fertility, yield and quality of the plant products. The main results and conclusions of the first nine years of these organic field trials are introduced and summarized here.