Reducing fossil fuel energy use in agriculture Fossil fuel use in primary agriculture will become a more important issue in future due to increased fossil fuel costs and public pressure to produce lower C footprint in food. Canadian scientists have documented energy use coefficients for crop production inputs (eg., Nagy, 1999) and this knowledge has enabled detailed studies on fossil fuel consumption in different cropping systems (eg., Hoeppner et al., 2005). In this project, we compare the fossil fuel energy inputs in four high yield crop production systems where various energy reduction strategies were used. A 13% energy saving was achieved by adopting a no-till farming systems, where fuel and machinery savings were mainly responsible for energy savings. A 34% energy saving was achieved by introducing perennial legume crops into a grain rotation. This had the effect of reducing rotational N fertilizer needs by 75%. A 43% saving in energy use was achieved by grazing the perennial legume instead of haying it. Therefore, an additional 9% energy saving was achieved by changing forage harvest management. A 65% energy savings was achieved by adopting a stockless (no livestock) organic farming system that relied on compost applications for P nutrition and green manures and cover crops for N nutrition. These 65% energy savings have been realized at the 15 acre Organic Crops Field Laboratory at Carman, MB between 2004 and 2011. Learn more at: http://umanitoba.ca/outreach/naturalagriculture/articles/fieldlab.html
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