Effects of mowing regimes on forage yield and crude protein of Leymus chinensis (Trin.) Tzvel in Songnen grassland

Abstract

Grasslands account for 25% of the world's land surface and support the livelihoods of approximately 1 billion people (Kemp et al., 2013).China has some of the world's largest grasslands, which are mostly used for grazing livestock. Since the 1950s, sheep numbers in China increased from 7.7 to 249.4 million. Consequently, the grassland area per sheep has decreased from 3.4 ha in the 1950s to 0.6 ha in 2015 (Jiang & Meurer, 2001;Liu, 2016). Such a marked increase in stocking rate requires more careful management of forage supply and improved forage utilization throughout the year to sustain livestock production (Milne et al., 2002;Zheng & Sun, 2011).Mowing is a common practice in grassland management to increase forage utilization and conserve forage production. Many studies have been conducted to examine effects of initial mowing time and subsequent mowing frequency on grassland productivity under diverse climate and soil conditions (Binnie et al., 2010;

Effects of Mowing Times on Nutrient Composition and In Vitro Digestibility of Forage in Three Sown Pastures of China Loess Plateau

“…Mowing combined with application of boron and molybdenum fertilizer increased the yields of different stubbles of alfalfa by 12.3%–45.6% [ 8 ]. Increasing stubble time can increase crude protein (CP) content, decrease EE, ash and fiber contents of alfalfa, and result in an increase in economic profit by 33.8% [ 9 ]. The dry matter (DM) and CP contents of L. chinensis increased when mowing time was delayed [ 10 ].…”

Analysis of Nutrient Composition, Rumen Degradation Characteristics, and Feeding Value of Chinese Rye Grass, Barley Grass, and Naked Oat Straw

“…The harvest time of forage grass is one of the important factors affecting CP contents. A study reported that the content of CP was higher and the content of fiber was lower upon initial mowing from 15 May to 15 June (heading), while the opposite results were obtained when the initial mowing was delayed (1 July to 30 September, which belong to bloom to post fruit vegetative period) [ 29 ]. The CRG was mowing in the initial bloom stage in this study; and the result related to the content of CP was consistent with the findings documented in the previous study.…”

Effects of different combinations of pre‐ and post‐grazing heights on herbage mass and nutrient reserves of Leymus chinensis in Northeast China

“…Different grassland utilization methods can lead to different objectives. In the temperate grasslands of the northern hemisphere, the annual autumn hay-harvesting practice involves mowing in mid-August with a stubble height of 6 cm, resulting in highest yield of herbage dry matter (DM), albeit at a comparatively lower nutritive value (Zhao et al, 2021). Moreover, the study conducted by Yang et al (2020) involved defoliation treatments with six different stubble heights: 14, 12, 10, 8, 6 cm, and less than 0.3 cm above the ground surface.…”