Magnesio en suelos y forrajes de la pradera pampeana argentina

Abstract

Magnesium situation in soils and fodder of the Argentinean pampas is analyzed, with particular reference to animal production. This approach is due to the fact that magnesium is linked, in that ecological environment, with possible cases of hypomagnesemia in the cattle population. Analytic data of soils and fodder, some of them from the same geographic places, are shown, in order to facilitate the interpretation of soil-plant relationship. In other cases, only the mineral composition data are registered, in order to point out the maximum and minimum limits. In the discussion of results, special attention is given to the potassium/magnesium ratio (values in milliequivalents), both in soil and fodder. In the first place it is considered that the value of 0.5 of potassium/magnesium ratio may be taken orientatively as a danger limit for animal production, fixing 5 as a tentative limit that must not be surpassed in fodder. Also, it is pointed out the general tendency to a positive correlation between the nutrient values in the soil and their content in grasses.