Study of the behavior of perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) in mixtures of perennial grasses and legumes, used by mowing and grazing

Abstract

The research was carried out in the Banat plain area, characterized by the uneven distribution of rainfall during the vegetation period. The experimental device applied included three types of simple mixtures (Lolium perenne 50% + Festuca pratensis 50%, Lolium perenne 50% + Trifolium repens 50%, Lolium perenne 50% + Lotus corniculatus 50%) and a complex mixture (Lolium perenne 30% + Festuca pratensis 30% + Trifolium repens 20% + Lotus corniculatus 20%) used both by mowing and grazing directly with sheep. The fertilization was carried out uniformly, at all experimental variants (200 kg/ha of complex fertilizers was applied at the establishment, and during the vegetation a dose of N150 was applied in fractions, before the vegetation started and after each mowing or grazing cycle). The grazing variants was carried out with young males sheep of Țurcana breed. The floral composition of temporary grassland reacts differently to the valorification methods (mowing and grazing) because the morphological and ecophysical peculiarities of the grass and legume species are different. In case of simple mixtures, Lolium perenne is very competitive in blends with Festuca pratensis with a share of 52% in mowed variants, and 73% in grazing variants. Perennial grasses and legumes used for the simple and complex mixtures were: Timis 81 (Lolium perenne), Tampa (Festuca pratensis), Danitim (Trifolium repens), Dragotim (Lotus corniculatus). In the two years of production, the complex blend recorded the highest production of dry matter, in both uses, under conditions of balanced floral ratio between the component species.