Grass and Legume Effects on Nutritive Value of Complex Forage Mixtures

Abstract

Dry matter productivity of complex forage mixtures is typically influenced by a dominant species, but nutritive value may be a function of multiple components. Two experiments were conducted in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin during 2 yr. Each experiment consisted of 15 mixtures and monocultures of orchardgrass (Dactylis glomerata L.), quackgrass (Elymus repens (L.) Gould), alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.), and white clover (Trifolium repens L.), or of meadow fescue [Schedonorus pratensis (Huds.) P. Beauv.], reed canarygrass (Phalaris arundinacea L.), red clover (Trifolium pratense L.), and kura clover (Trifolium ambiguum M. Bieb.). Vegetative‐stage mixtures and monocultures were harvested five times each year. Botanical composition was used to calculate the additive effect of each species, or the expected change in nutritive value associated with a change in proportion of a species in the mixture from 0 to 100%. Nutritive value differences among mixtures attributed to abundance of sown species were evident the first year, but except for monocultures, had largely disappeared in the second year. White clover and meadow fescue had a positive additive effect on forage digestibility (range of 36 to 80 g kg−1), but alfalfa and reed canarygrass had no additive effect on digestibility. Legumes generally had a negative additive effect (range of −179 to −81 g kg−1) and grasses a positive effect (range of 81 to 166 g kg−1) on forage neutral detergent fiber concentration. The results suggest that species with high nutritive value relative to other species within the same functional group have a disproportionate effect on nutritive value of complex mixtures.

Evaluation of competitive ability of perennial ryegrass in mixtures with red clover and lucerne subjected to different levels of N

“…Leto et al (2008) in their study stated that fertilization with N gave 29% higher grasses DM yield, 9% higher grasses content and decreased legume contribution. Similar conclusions were made in the research by Nyfeler et al (2009) and Bijelić et al (2017b). Nyfeler et al (2009 were summarize that for achieving maximal yield mixtures which were fertilized with 50 kgN ha -1 have to have the legume content of 50 -70%.…”

Nutritive value and yield of reduced‐lignin alfalfa cultivars in monoculture and in binary mixtures with perennial grass

“…Meadow fescue tended to have greatest IVTD in Ithaca, but not in Lexington or Rosemount. Unlike other grass species, meadow fescue had a positive additive effect on forage digestibility in grass‐legume mixtures, due to 40 to 70 g kg −1 greater digestibility of MF than the mean of grass‐legume mixtures in PA and WI (Brink, Sanderson, & Casler, ).…”

Species interactions in a grassland mixture under low nitrogen fertilization and two cutting frequencies. II. Nutritional quality

“…This is partly because grasses are generally earlier in reproductive development than legumes, resulting in the effects of reproductive development being distributed over a larger time span and balanced by the presence of species at other developmental stages. The nutritional quality of mixtures is largely determined by the dominant species in the mixture, and therefore, it may change as the species composition changes from year to year (Deak et al ., ; Sturludottir et al., ; Brink et al ., ). There are few reported examples of species diversity effects independent of sampling effects occurring among the species in a sward.…”