Sustainable management of foxtail meadows through hay making at seed maturity

Summary

Harvesting meadows at early heading of the grasses yields large quantities of high quality forage but might in the long term cause the swards to deteriorate due to the lack of formation of mature seeds. We studied 4 cutting regimes on a foxtail meadow to define which would maintain the foxtail population naturally and is acceptable in terms of forage quality. The 1st cut of the different cutting regimes was done either at early shooting, shooting, early heading or seed maturity of Alopecurus pratensis L.. The 2nd cut of the 3 first treatments was simultaneous to the 1st cut of the 4th treatment and was ground dried to allow the seeds to fall on the soil. When the meadow was harvested regularly at early heading of A. pratensis, its botanical composition deteriorated within 5 years and its yield decreased. With a 1st cut at seed maturity, A. pratensis produced the most seeds and its proportion in the sward increased, but the forage had the lowest quality. In the treatments with the 1st cut at early shooting or at shooting, A. pratensis produced significant quantities of seeds during the 2nd regrowth, maintained its population and forage of intermediate quality was produced. Sustainable production of quality forage on intensive foxtail meadows might be achieved by periodically having the 1st cut at shooting and using the second regrowth at seed maturity for ground dried hay.