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The crop yield and quality of seven annual forages (four grasses and three legumes) in sole crop and in mixtures (ratio 50:50) for oat (Avena sativa L.), Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam.), triticale (x Triticosecale Wittmack), barley (Hordeum vulgare L.), pea (Pisum sativum L.), berseem (Trifolium alexandrinum L.) and common vetch (Vicia sativa L.) were evaluated in a two-year field experiment adopting two harvesting times, green fodder and silage. The main bio-agronomic traits, dry matter forage yield (DMY) and quantity of crude protein (CP) were determined in both sole crop and intercrop. The land equivalent ratio (LER) was used for evaluating biological efficiency and competitive ability of the intercrops. Our results showed that the total calculated LER for fodder and protein yields was always greater than one and corresponded to crop yield advantages of 16.0% and 11.5%, respectively. Our data also highlighted the low competitive ability of the ryegrass in intercrop, which achieved the lowest yield among all the mixtures. Conversely, the same grass showed the best green fodder quality, due to the high incidence of the legume, equal (on average) to 46%. Triticale and barley, harvested for silage (hard dough stage), provided the best quantitative and qualitative results both in sole crop and intercropped with common vetch and pea, determined mainly by the cereal grain.

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The environmental performance of secondgeneration biofuels from lignocellulosic biomass, such as crop residues, is foreseen to be superior to that of first-generation biofuels such as maize bioethanol. Moreover, using a legume as an intercrop can reduce costly N fertilizers inputs and can increase the N content of the straw mixture. Therefore, we studied cereal-legume intercrops as a source of food grain and straw bioethanol. We grew field pea and four cultivars of durum wheat, triticale, oat, and barley. Crops were grown during 2 years as a sole crop, in additive intercrop with 100 % of the sole crop density for the cereal and 50 % of sole crop density for the legume, and in replacement intercrop with 50 % of the sole crop density for each crop. Tall cereal cultivars were preferred over shorter cereals for an extra production of straw. Results show that growth resources were used up to 23-26 % more efficiently in intercrop than in sole crop for grain and straw production. Tall cereal cultivars suppressed legume yields in intercrops, thus reducing potential intercrop advantages. Pea in intercrop increased straw mixture N by 54 % the first year and by 91 % the second year, versus cereal alone.

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