PERENNIAL FORAGE CROPS

 Perennial clovers

-          main kinds – lucerne, trefoil, bird´s-foot trefoil, snail-clover, sainfoin

lucerne

trefoil

bird´s-foot trefoil

-          meaning – nitrogen fixation, fruitful effect – they leave high amount of roots with high nutient content (N, Ca) in the soil, they weed-out effect – great ability at phytocoenose, they are deep-rooted – nutrients are yielded up from lower soil layers

-          feed with high nitrogenous matter content, high biological value of proteins, high mineral matter content (Ca)

-          disadvantages and risks:

o       there the lignin content raises markedly in the stalks of older growths

o       young growth – flatulence, diarrhoea

o       inclinable to souring

o       estrogen matter content (it increases after fertilization by phosphate fertilisers)

Grasses

-          there circa 200 kinds of grasses occur in the Czech Republic, there 50 – 80 kinds are represented at natural grass growths, there 12 – 15 kinds are used intensely at farms

-          dividing:

o       by the offshoot way:

• clumpy grasses

• thickly = uncultured, weedy kinds, they are not site soil conditions demanding, worse digestible forage of poor quality in term of nutrition, they form exactly bounded, hilly clumps, the clumps are not suitable for pasture usage and for cutting way usage

Hair-grass (Deschampsia cespitosa), Fescue (Festuca ovina)

• freely = they have fast evolution (there high yields are already at 1^st -2^nd useful year), good competitive ability, easy seed management, good quality and yields, but limited persistence (they last 4 – 7 years at growth), quality dense connected growths

Cocksfoot (Dactylis glomerata), Timothy grass (Phleum pratense), Rye-grass (Lolium perenne)

• stolonate grasses – cultured kinds are involved, weeds are involved too, they have slow evolution (there quality production is after 3^rd – 4^th useful year), more difficult seed management, they are persistent (10 – 12 years), they are used for permanent pasture and meadows founding, they form elastic, resistant clump, the clump is resistant to downtrodden stage

Foxtail (Alopecurus pratensis), Meadow grass (Poa pratensis),  Red fescue (Festuca rubra)

o       by the practical (forage) aspect:

• basic kinds : Timothy grass (Phleum pratense), Cocksfoot (Dactylis glomerata), Meadow fuscue (Festuca pratensis), Rye-grass (Lolium multiflorum), Rye-grass (Lolium perenne)

•  complementary kinds: they have special requirements on climatic and soil conditions, they are gown in mixtures with other kinds for forage usage.

Cynosurus crystatus, Arrhenatherum elatius, Trisetum flavescens

o       by other aspects: for example by the high, by the demands to water, by the demands to nutrients, ...

Clover-grasses

-          phytocoenose of one or more kinds of clovers with one or more kinds of grasses, eventually herbs

-          factors which decide about clover-grasses evolution:

o       ecological conditions – production type, soil kind, soil type, moisture conditions (precipitation, snow cover, hard frost, saturation line), slopes

o       duration of cultivation use

• short period, intensely exploited 1 – 3 years (eventually 3 – 4)

• temporary 5 – 6 years

• permanent over 6 years = permanent grass covers

o       way of production use – mowing (meadows)

o       grazing (pastures)

o       varied way

o       outside of produce usage (playgrounds, highway embankments)

-          common principles of clover-grasses composition:

o       the longer usage period, the higher amount of kinds, the lower clover part, the lower clumpy grass part, the higher stolonate grass part

o       higher high grass part on meadows

o       higher stolonate grass part on pastures than meadows

o       it is important to know permanent specification, reaction to usage way, competition, etc.