Restoration of degraded mountain pastures of the Сentral Сaucasus by targeted sowing of seeds of perennial grasses

Abstract

The unsystematic use of mountain pastures with overgrazing of grasses has led to a change in the ecological balance of agrolandscapes, in which 80-85% of the Central Caucasus lands have turned into a state of varying degrees of degradation. In these cases, an important measure in the restoration of degraded mountain forage lands is the sowing of perennial grasses into sparse grass and on bare soil, which increases stiffness. Therefore, the development and creation of a seeder for targeted seeding of grass mixtures in solving the problem is relevant. The authors of the article have developed a new resource-saving way to improve mountain forage lands using a modernized seeder. Tests and studies were carried out at a mountain hospital, located on the southeastern exposition of the Dargavs depression of the North Ossetia-Alania, at an altitude of 1650 m above sea level. It was found that at a concentration of 17.2 MJ of energy in 1 kg of dry matter of feed, the total collection in the control plot was 29.7 GJ, and in the seeded experimental field 85.3 GJ. At the same time, the formation of a dense sod with the accumulation of 104.2 c / ha of root mass is the main factor in the environmental sustainability of mountain agrolandscapes, ensuring environmental safety

Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and Multispectral Sensors to Model Forage Yield for Grasses of Semiarid Landscapes

“…Furthermore, estimates of grass forage yields are important for the determination of the grazing capacity of a grassland ecosystem [2]. In addition, the knowledge of available forage enables land managers to make informed decisions about stocking rates and grazing management practices to prevent overgrazing and maintain the health of grasslands [3]. Yield estimates are important for understanding the relationship between climate and forage growth, as research has shown that forage yield is closely related to climatic factors such as precipitation [2].…”

“…The following sample sizes were available for those species directly used in model training: 61 for orchard grass (Dactylis glomerata), 138 for intermediate wheatgrass IWG (Thinopyrum intermedium), 325 for bluebunch wheatgrass BBWG (Pseudoroegneria spicata), and 457 for tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea). 3 Shandon CAL 1 TF_CAL23_1 tall fescue Shandon CAL 2 TF_CAL23_2 orchard grass 4 Shandon CAL 1 ORC_CAL23_1 orchard grass Shandon CAL 2 ORC_CAL23_2…”

“…2 Pseudoroegneria spicata-the only sparse canopy grass included. 3 Festuca arundinacea. 4 Dactylis glomerata.…”

Traction Force Investigation of The New Working Body of The Sod Seeder

“…Therefore, it is necessary to improve pastures by sowing seeds under cover crops and on turf (Himmelbauer et al, 2013;Bathgate, Revell, and Kingwell, 2009). Currently, the radical improvement of pastures, including a full range of operations to create a new grass shank by sowing seeds of perennial grasses requires significant financial costs and is carried out very rarely (Fulkerson and Lowe, 2022;Soldatov et al, 2020;Zotov et al, 2012). The majority of technologies for restoring the biological productivity of natural grasslands are based on scattered grass seeding or direct seeding, which involves cutting furrows in the turf and seeding grass seeds.…”