The Formation of a Crop of Meadow Grasses for Clippings Depending on the Technological Measures of Cultivation

Abstract

High-performance animal husbandry is impossible without the creation of a fodder base, in the formation of which an important place is assigned to the effective use of natural fodder phytocenoses. The theoretical aspects of the formation of their high productivity and nutrition, including at different clippings, are not fully elucidated today. Field research was carried out during 2014-2016 in the conditions of SS NULES of Ukraine "Agronomic Research Station" on typical low-humus chernozem. The purpose of the research was to study the influence of technological methods of growing meadow grasses on the formation of the yield of meadow grasses and their distribution along the clippings in the conditions of the right-bank forest-steppe of Ucraine. It was established that alfalfa and alfalfa-cereal grass stands are characterized by the best distribution of the harvest along clippings, regardless of fertilization, in which the share of the total yield in the first clippings was 40-42 %, in the second - 32-33 %, and in the third - 25-27 % due to unevenness in the range of 21-26 %, while on cereal grass - respectively, 50-51 %, 31-34, 15-19 % and irregularly - 48-55 %. During the formation of the first clippings, the increase in the productivity of the sown grass stands occurs before the onset of the flowering phase of the dominant components. The maximum daily increases in dry matter (96-149 kg/ha) and the net productivity of photosynthesis (2.58-3.52 g/m2 day) are observed in the phase of branching and budding of alfalfa and alfalfa-cereal grass stands with the application of P60K90 and in the period from the end the phase of emergence into the tube before the beginning of earing of the dominant cereals on the cereal grass stand with the introduction of N60P60K90. The leaf surface index reached maximum values (37.2-45.1 thousand m2/ha) with the onset of the earing phase in dominant cereals and budding in legumes with a share of leaves in the structure of the grass stand at the level of 29-49 %. In leguminous-cereal grass stands, the leaf surface and foliage during the vegetation phases after reaching the maximum values decrease more slowly than in cereals.