The effect of cutting strategy on production and quality of high-yielding multispecies grasslands

Summary

There is an increasing focus on biodiversity and feed resources for pollinators. However, the integration of these elements into high-yielding temporary grasslands is a challenge. With the main aim of continuous flowering we examined three strategies with four cuts per year, in which the time of the spring cut varied. In total we had 10 different harvest times during the season. This was combined with 12 different species mixtures in two categories. One was high-yielding mixtures composed of perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne), white clover (Trifolium repens) and red clover (Trifolium pratense), either alone or with either chicory (Cichorium intybus), ribwort plantain (Plantago planceolata) or caraway (Carum carvi). The other category was lower-yielding two-species mixtures composed of one legume (red clover, lucerne (Medicago sativa) or birdsfoot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus)) and one spring-flowering non-leguminous forb (salad burnet (Sanguisorba minor) or dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)). Annual dry matter yield was only slightly affected by cutting strategy. Feeding value and weekly change in feed value differed considerably between species. Weekly decrease of digestibility of organic matter ranged from 0.4% in caraway to 5.0% in birdsfoot trefoil. For the two-species mixtures, birdsfoot trefoil was the least-useful companion legume for non-leguminous forbs.