-The objective of the present work was to develop calibration equations for the prediction of chemical composition and forage digestibility from different populations of alfalfa hay harvested in Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese production area of Northern Italy. Due to annual climatic variations that affect soil and growing conditions and consequently cause high variability in chemical and physical composition, 319 hay samples from four years were used to build robust calibration. NIRS calibration equations were developed for the prediction of in vitro NDF digestibility (IVNDFd) and 20 chemical parameters (dry matter, starch, fat, sugar, fiber fractions, crude protein, nitrogen fractions and some minerals) of Italian hay. The results obtained show that NIRS equations greatly explain the variation in the composition existing in alfalfa hays grown in Northern Italy, except for a few parameters characterized by low variability range value. The equations obtained for the prediction of biological and chemical parameters explain the major part of the variation existing in the reference data, which open great prospects for the use of NIRS in planning feeding strategies of livestock, based on alfalfa forage.

The aim of this work was to study the yield and nutritional characteristics of winter wheat hay. A selection of cultivars recommended for three main purposes: grain, whole plant (biomass) and dual purpose (grain and biomass) production were cultivated and harvested from heading to grain dough stages. Yield dry weight (YDW), dry matter (DM) and undigested neutral detergent fiber (uNDF) increased with advancing maturity, ranging from 9 t ha−1, 20 and 11% of DM to 16 t ha−1, 43 and 17% of DM, respectively; while crude protein (CP) and neutral detergent fiber (NDF) decreased from 11 and 59% of DM to 6 and 54% of DM, respectively. Our study showed that dual purpose winter wheat cultivars displayed similar performance of CP, NDF and net energy for lactation, when harvested at heading or grain milk stages. In addition, winter wheat recommended to be harvested as whole plant showed similar values of YDW, sugar and starch contents, when harvested at grain dough and milk stages. These characteristics are strategic in hay production, allowing a more flexible harvesting strategy. These results might be useful to improve the hay production, given useful information on harvest time and improving agricultural sustainability covering the soil in autumn and winter.

To achieve sustainable energy crop production, energy crops should not compete for land against feed and food crops. One option for sustainable energy-crop cultivation is the use of double cropping systems with minimum tillage use and digestate as natural fertilizer, where, in the same growing season, a second crop for biomethane production is planted after a first crop used for feed/food. Different sorghum phenotypes were evaluated in the present study as first and second crops in a double cropping system. A principal component analysis of the various sorghum phenotypes showed that starch content positively affected methane production. However, sorghum chemical composition did not influence the profitability of bioenergy production as much as the total solid biomass yields of the different sorghum phenotypes. The highest total solid biomass productive sorghum phenotype led to the highest methane hectare yield.

For sustainable biomethane production, energy crops should not compete for land against feed and food. In response to this requirement, a set of practices for an innovative way to produce food and biomethane was developed in Italy with the Biogasdoneright™ model, which introduces the double‐cropping system along with digestate fertilization and minimum tillage. Triticale is a promising feedstock as energy crop in such systems. Ninteen varieties of triticale harvested at milk and dough development stages were evaluated. Principal component analysis showed that cellulose content positively affects methane production whereas starch content has only a very weak relation with specific methane yield and methane formation rate. Despite these relations, triticale chemical composition did not influence the profitability of bioenergy production as much as the total biomass solids yields, the total solids concentration at harvest, and the timing of growth. Triticale can be considered a suitable energy crop for biomethane targeting at least 4600 Nm3 CH4 per hectare. © 2022 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Permanent grasslands represent the main terrestrial ecosystem and serve as an important global reservoir of biodiversity, providing a wide range of benefits to humans and ecosystems. The effects of environment on permanent meadows (in our survey, they were centuries-old meadows that had not been plowed, mowed, or fertilized with manure) production have been adequately investigated in literature. However, plant species composition impact on potential feed value of first cut has still to be understood, in particular regarding different agronomic management. Our field trial was carried out in five farms, in a territory involved in the value chain of the Parmigiano Reggiano PDO (Val d’Enza, Northern Italy), over a two-year period (2017–2018). Differences in botanical composition, biomass, and Pastoral Value index (PV), which synthesizes grassland yield and nutritional parameters, were investigated in depth. The herbage dry matter (DM) yield was affected by year, farm, and their interaction factors. Its highest value across the two years was recorded in farm 5 (11.7 tons of DM ha−1), which applied the highest rate of nitrogen fertilization. The botanical composition of the first cut has favored the presence of both Poaceae and ‘other species’ (each one around 40 plants per transect) compared to Fabaceae (seven plants per transect). However, higher numbers of Fabaceae plants (13 and 10) plausibly determined increases in PV in farms 3 and 5 (56.4 and 58.7, respectively). Although differences were observed among the most important nutritional parameters of grassland (crude protein, digestible and undigested neutral detergent fiber contents), suitable net energy for lactation (NEL) values for feeding lactating cows were always recorded during the two years of survey. The present study provides a contribution of knowledge on how the botanical composition of permanent meadows may affect their potential nutritive value as fresh herbage for feeding dairy cows. Considering these results, the agronomic management should seek a level of plant biodiversity that at the same time might guarantee satisfactory yield and feed value, also in a context of climate change.

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