Quality and quantity of chicory, lucerne and red clover production under irrigation

Abstract

The quality and quantity of production from irrigated lucerne, chicory and red clover swards were compared over six years (30 November 1996 30 June 2002) on a Wakanui silt loam at Lincoln University. Mean annual yields from lucerne swards (21 t DM/ha) were 3.9 t/ha greater than chicory and red clover over five perennial regrowth seasons. Sown species gave 100% of dry matter (DM) production in the first regrowth season, but by the fifth season sown species gave 65, 55 and 0% of DM production for chicory, lucerne and red clover respectively. Utilised herbage had a similar metabolisable energy (ME) content for all three species (10.9 11.6 MJ/ kg/DM). The crude protein (CP) content of utilised herbage was also similar for lucerne and red clover (0.25-0.29 g/g DM), but chicory had a lower CP content (0.18 g/g DM). This combined with utilisation data to show lucerne swards provided 30% greater annual CP and ME intake for grazing stock than either chicory or red clover. This demonstrated the greater potential of lucerne to improve livestock production from high value land. Changes in lucerne herbage quality were also analysed within regrowth cycles to examine the influence of the time of grazing on CP and ME intake. The fraction of palatable lucerne herbage decreased linearly from 100% at 700 kg/ha standing DM to 57% at 4300 kg/ha standing DM. The CP and ME contents of the palatable fraction of lucerne herbage were always higher than the post grazing residual. This highlights the selective grazing of the stock, which consumed 80% of total CP and 70% of total ME for a crop of 4300 kg/ha standing DM. This grazing preference shows that delaying defoliation will not reduce potential stock production, unless stock are forced to consume the low quality stem in standing herbage. Keywords: Cichorium intybus, crude protein, herbage utilisation, Medicago sativa, metabolisable energy, pasture persistence, Trifolium pratense

Performance of indigenous and exotic×indigenous sheep breeds fed different diets in spring and the efficiency of feeding system in crop–livestock farming

“…The slight increase in DMD contents of the plants in the final week of the trial was probably due to the filling of grain in the triticale and pod formation in the Hungarian vetch. The changes in nutritive quality parameters in the present study were in line with the results of Brown & Moot (2004), who reported that ME in the palatable fraction of the legumes generally remains constant as the plants grow and herbage is accumulated compared to cereal crops and grass species, which generally have dramatic reductions in their nutritive value with increasing DM production and development.…”

Chemical Composition and Nutritive Benefits of Chicory(Cichorium intybus)as an Ideal Complementary and/or Alternative Livestock Feed Supplement

“…In 2004, Brown and Moot's study [ 85 ] established that combined herbage quality and greater herbage consumptions of lucerne forage afforded 30% greater annual crude protein (CP) and ME intake for sward than chicory or red clover. This indicates that lucerne has greater potential to improve livestock production.…”

Animal and forage responses on lucerne (Medicago sativa L.) pastures under contrasting grazing managements in a temperate climate

“…This reduced the overall quality of the feed on offer, through an allometric decline in the leaf to stem ratio (Lemarie, Sinclair, Sadras, & Bélanger, 2019; Ta et al, 2020). In practice, the animals can be expected to select the leaf and the soft stem components of the lucerne (Brown & Moot, 2004), so liveweight gains and the nutritive value of the ingested feed can be higher than the feed on offer. However, a delayed start of spring grazing frequently leads to higher crop residuals of lucerne (Moot et al., 2016) as the hard, lignified stem is avoided, which was apparent in the lower leaf to stem ratio of T500 crops.…”

“…To increase the potential benefits for grazing lucerne, several recent studies have investigated the mechanisms responsible for the relationships between herbage mass and quality ( e.g. Brown & Moot, 2004; Ta, Teixeira, Brown, & Moot, 2020; Lemaire & Bélanger, 2020), seasonal changes in remobilization and partitioning of assimilates (Brown, Moot, & Teixeira, 2006; Khaity & Lemaire, 1992) and drivers of crop growth and development (Teixeira, Brown, Meenken, & Moot, 2011). Collectively, these studies have allowed development of grazing management rules independent of phenological state ( i.e.…”

“…10% flowering). These aim to maximize the proportion of leaf and soft stem consumed by the grazing animal (Brown & Moot, 2004). Specifically, it is recommended that the spring rest interval between an individual paddock should be no longer than 350 GDD, to avoid senescence losses (Brown, Moot, & Teixeira, 2005; Teixeira, Moot, Brown, & Pollock, 2007).…”