Combining Ability in Mixtures of Prairie Grass and Clovers

Abstract

Our objective was to evaluate the combining ability among cultivars of forage species, commonly sown in temperate regions of Argentina using a short rotation system. Three genetically diverse cultivars of prairie brome grass (Bromus catharticus, cv Copetona, cv Ñandú and cv Tango), a white clover cultivar (Trifolium repens, cv Lucero) and a red clover cultivar (T. pratense, cv Tropero) were evaluated. A randomized complete block design experiment was established in 2005. The treatments included five monocultures and ten binary mixtures. The experiment was harvested 6 times over an 18-month period. Cumulative dry matter yield (kg·ha -1 ) was calculated as the sum of the six individual harvests. Diallel analysis provided estimates of the general combining ability (GCA) and specific combining ability (SCA). Red clover in monoculture and mixtures produced the highest yields, with significant positive GCA effects (P < 0.01). Lucero white clover, and Copetona and Tango prairie grasses had significant negative GCA effects (P < 0.05). In mixtures, red clover with each of the three grass cultivars and white clover with Tango had significant and outstanding SCA effects (P < 0.01). Grass/grass mixtures and the legume/legume mixture showed non-significant SCA effects, while the grass/legume mixtures generally had higher yield than either component sown as a monoculture (P < 0.01). Given the short-term nature of this study, we must limit our inference to short-term pastures (<2 years). Under these conditions, red clover had the best combination with prairie brome grass.

Effect of Seeding Ratios of Alfalfa (Medicago sativa) and Rhodes Grass (Chloris gayana) Mixtures on Dry Matter Yield and Nutritive Quality of the Fodder

“…Other findings also indicated that mixtures gave higher green forage yields than the pure stands [5] . This finding is in line with other scholars who reported that higher mean biomass yield was obtained from the mixture as compared to their components grown in monoculture [22] . Generally, the result shows that seeding ratio of 50:50 and 25:75 for alfalfa and Rhodes grass were showed the highest total biomass yields for the Rhodes grass and alfalfa in the intercropping system.…”

Biodiversity of a red clover collection based on morpho-productive traits

“…Red clover can be established as a pure stand or in grass/legume mixtures, as a pasture for livestock. The cultivation of mixed grass/legume grasslands has been increasing because of many potential advantages in comparison to monocultures (Arturi et al, 2012). In Serbia, red clover is mostly grown in pure stands on arable land, but it is also seeded in grass mixtures, and occurs to a limited extent in permanent swards (Simić et al, 2013).…”

The Application of an Unmanned Aerial System and Machine Learning Techniques for Red Clover-Grass Mixture Yield Estimation under Variety Performance Trials

“…This fixation of atmospheric nitrogen makes red clover an ideal rotational crop; particularly in organic agricultural systems where no synthetic nitrogen fertilizers are used [4]. A range of studies have observed that the establishment of red clover was more successful when sown in mixtures with grass species rather than in pure, monocultural stands [5,6]. In Estonia, the application of red clover in trials results in a mixed-species approach with other grass species blended to increase its commercial application value, where the complexity of estimation might be higher than monocropping systems.…”