The effectiveness of joint cultivation of festulolium with esparcet for forage purposes in the forest-steppe of Western Siberia

Abstract

The results of the analysis of the yield and biological efficiency in the joint cultivation of festulolium and esparcet with various methods of sowing and applying nitrogen fertilizers in spring in the conditions of the forest-steppe zone of Western Siberia are presented. The survival rate of festulolium plants after overwintering the first year of life was 86%, esparcet survival rate in single-species sowing was 86% and decreased when using the skip-row planting to 76%, when sowing with a mixture of seeds to 67%. Joint sowing of festulolium with esparcet increased the yield by 22.6% compared with single-species sowing of festulolium (30.38 t/ha of the green mass) when using the skip-row planting and by 7.9% (to 26.73 t/ha) when sown with a mixture of seeds. The energy efficiency ratio (EER) is 7.7–9.0 and is characterized as high, the profitability of the mixtures is 373%. The introduction of mineral nitrogen at a dose of 30 kg a.i./ ha significantly increased the yield of the mixtures of festulolium with esparcet in the variants skip-row planting by 29.5% and in the variant of sowing with a mixture of seeds by 11.5% due to an increase in the leafiness of the legume component. In the experiment the EER equals 4.4–5.2 and is characterized as high, the profitability of sowing the mixtures is 352%. With an increase in the dose of mineral nitrogen to 60 kg a.i. / ha, the maximum yield on the variant of sowing with a mixture of seeds is 41.84 t / ha of green mass, which is 32% higher than single–species sowing of festulolium. The increase is due to a 4% increase in the height of the festulolium plants, and 60% of its mass. When using skip-row planting, the yield was 39.11 t/ha of the green mass, which is 23.4% higher than the control. The EER equals 4.7–4.9 and is characterized as average, the profitability of sowing the mixtures is 349–364%.The arable land efficiency ratio (LER) in the mixtures was 0.96–1.06, which confirms their effectiveness.