Establishment of native plant species for livestock forage in silvopasture systems
Incorporating sustainable agriculture practices and environmental stewardship into existing forage-livestock systems is growing in popularity. This project takes a novel approach incorporating native rather than introduced forage species. Our objectives were to: determine success of establishment of native cool and warm season grasses, and native forb and legume species in two different existing silvopasture systems -- pitch pine (Pinus rigida Mill.) x loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) hybrid and eastern American black walnut (Juglans nigra L.) -- with open pasture as a control, and determine how differences in environmental factors (Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR), ambient temperature, and soil moisture) associated with each treatment affect establishment of native plant species. The experiment was a Randomized Complete Block Design replicated in 2020 and 2021. Treatment establishment (3 treatments, 3 replications each) began each fall preceding the growing season by no-till drilling the cool season grasses. All remaining forages were no-till drilled each winter prior to the growing season. Environmental (PAR, ambient temperature, soil water content), plant community composition, herbage accumulation, and forage quality data were collected for treatments during each growing season. There were significant environmental differences among treatments. Additionally, there were significant differences in forage quality and herbage accumulation among treatments for the cool season grass species. Upon completion of the study, there were no differences in stand counts between treatments for all plant functional groups.
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