Integrating perennial biomass crops into crop rotations: How to remove miscanthus and switchgrass without glyphosate

Abstract

Perennial energy grasses have gained attention in recent years as a promising resource for the bioeconomy because of their benign environmental profile, high stress tolerance, high biomass yields and low input requirements. Currently, strong breeding efforts are being made to extend the range of commercially available miscanthus and switchgrass genotypes. In order to foster farmers' acceptance of these crops, and especially of novel hybrids, more information is required about how they can be efficiently integrated into cropping rotations, how they can be removed at the end of their productive lifespan, and what effect they have on subsequently grown crops. Farmers in Europe are meanwhile increasingly constrained in the methods available to them to remove these crops, and there is a risk that the herbicide glyphosate, which has been used in many studies to remove them, will be banned in coming years. This study looks at the removal of seven-year-old stands of miscanthus and switchgrass over 1 year at an experimental site in Southern-Germany. Three novel miscanthus genotypes were studied, alongside one variety of switchgrass, and the impact of each crop's removal on the yield of maize grown as a follow-on crop was examined. A combination of soil tillage and grass herbicides for maize cultivation was successful in controlling miscanthus regrowth, such that yields of maize grown after miscanthus did not differ significantly from yields of maize grown in monoculture rotation (18.1 t dry biomass ha−1). Yields of maize grown after switchgrass (14.4 t dry biomass ha−1) were significantly lower than maize in monoculture rotation caused by insufficient control of switchgrass regrowth by the applied maize herbicide. Although some regrowth of miscanthus and switchgrass was observed in the follow-on crop maize, complete eradication of both crops was achieved by subsequent winter wheat cultivation.