Effects of biogas fertilizer application on yield and quality of silage maize

YANG Honglin; SUN Qinping; WANG Xuexia; ZOU Guoyuan

doi:10.13557/j.cnki.issn1002-2813.2025.24.022

Abstract：This experiment aimed to investigate the effects of different application methods of biogas fertilizer on the yield and quality of silage maize.Using the dominant silage maize in North China as the research subject,a three-year field plot experiment was conducted.Five treatments were established,no fertilizer(control,group CK),100％compound fertilizer(conventional fertilization,group T1),40％biogas fertilizer+60％compound fertilizer(group T2),70％biogas fertilizer+30％compound fertilizer(group T3),and 100％biogas fertilizer(group T4).In the third year of the experiment,the effects of different biogas fertilizer treatments on maize yield and quality were systematically studied,and their potential driving factors were analyzed.The results showed that plant height,stem diameter,number of green leaves,fresh weight per plant,and dry weight in groups T1 to group T4 were significantly higher than those in group CK(P<0.05).Compared to group T1,group T4 significantly increased the number of green leaves,fresh weight per plant,and dry weight by 12.59％,8.17％,and 13.62％,respectively(P<0.05).Compared to group CK,group T4 significantly increased yield by 19.25％,group T2 significantly increased seed setting rate by 2.30％,while groups T2 and T4 significantly increased single ear weight by 20.19％and 19.54％,respectively.The crude protein content in groups T1 to T4 was significantly higher than that in group CK(P<0.05).There were no significant differences in the content of crude fat,total starch,total free amino acids,and crude ash between groups(P>0.05).Correlation analysis indicated that the substitution of biogas fertilizer likely promotes maize yield increase and quality improvement primarily by enhancing the concentrations of total nitrogen,alkali-hydrolyzable nitrogen,total phosphorus,available phosphorus,and available potassium of soil.The study shows that in North China,replacing chemical fertilizers with 100％biogas fertilizer can best meet the nutrient requirements of silage maize.This treatment results in the best agronomic traits,highest yield,and excellent quality of silage maize.