Are polycultures for silage pragmatic medleys or gallimaufries?

Polycultures, mixtures of different crop species in the same field, may provide both production and ecological benefits. Silage annual cropping systems incorporate polycultures take advantage species’ niche partitioning, potentially stabilizing yield variation due to abiotic stress. Using maize (Zea mays L.) silage as basis our 3‐year study, we tested impact on soil attributes replacing a fraction with soy (Glycine max (L.) Merr.), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor var. × sudanense [unnamed hybrid]), or medley soy, sorghum, sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.). Compared monocultures average for three years, replacement mixture + lowered yields(1.57 vs. 1.87 kg m‐2), but increased nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K) concentration by 1.2x, 1.09x, 1.03x, respectively. Maize matched biomass yields (1.77 m‐2) K (10.2 8.2 g kg‐1). While random forest analysis revealed no change post‐harvest mineral N depth among treatments, there was tendency higher total left soy‐containing sorghum‐containing treatments (12.4 10.9 m‐2). are feasible alternative can improve nutrient penalty if dominate plant stands. This article is protected copyright. All rights reserved