Effect of lupin management on the yield of subsequent wheat crops in a lupin-wheat rotation

Abstract

Wheat was grown in a series of 1:1 rotation cycles with sweet lupins over 8 years on three sites in Western Australia. Grain yield of wheat was the main test used to compare five lupin management treatments with a control treatment, 'no-lupins'. The lupins were cut as for silage, cut as for hay, or harvested as mature grain, the stubble being burnt or removed in summer, or turned into the soil the next autumn. Nitrogen taken up in the lupins and in the wheat was measured, as well as soil mineral nitrogen in the top 10 cm in the final year. Lupin yield and nitrogen content within any year were similar over all treatments. As much nitrogen was removed in hay and silage as in mature lupins, but wheat yielded most grain after the 'silage' and 'hay' treatments, and least after 'no-lupins' or after the 'remove' and 'turn-in' stubble treatments. Nitrogen uptakes in young wheat plants point to treatment effects due to differences in nitrogen availability, but the treatments also caused different weed populations which at least partially affected wheat yields. Herbicide control of encroaching weeds in the lupins raised soil nitrate levels the following summer and increased subsequent wheat yields.