Productivity of fodder crops cultivated in monoculture and crop rotation in steppe zone of the Southern Urals

The problems of producing and increasing feed volume for livestock industry when growing agricultural feed crops in crop rotation system in the Southern Urals were studied. The possibility of growing forage crops in permanent cultivation under two fertilization regimes was considered. The characteristic features of climate conditions during 32 years of research were described, 10 of them correspond to desert conditions (hydrothermal index 0.4). Based on the study of corn cultivation for silage in monocropping, it was established that this variant of the experiment was the most productive both without fertilizer application (283.62 thousand fodder units from 3 hectares of arable land) and when using mineral fertilizers (303.06 thousand fodder units). Growing barley in crop rotation with soil-protective fallow provides the crop yield of 67.13 thousand fodder units from 1 hectare (total for 19902021).