Compatibility, Yield, and Quality of Warm-Season Grass-Legume Mixtures

The lack of consistent summer pasture supply is a major limitation to livestock production in the mid-Atlantic region. Perennial warm-season grasses might provide a solution if managed for high quality. Experiments were conducted on separate well-established stands of Caucasian bluestem and 'Cave-in-Rock' switchgrass at the Kentland Farm near Blacksburg, VA. Stages of grass maturity at harvest simulating pasture and hay systems were tested. Six interseeded legume species and two grass monoculture checks, one with 56 kg N/ha applied in spring and after each harvest, the other with no N, were imposed as sub-plots. Legume species included alfalfa, red clover, sericea lespedeza, annual lespedeza, Illinois bundleflower, and purple prairieclover. Inter-seeded legumes contributed a significant amount to yield and quality of perennial warm-season grasses in the legume-establishment year. In the year after establishment, grass mixtures with alfalfa, red clover, and, for switchgrass, sericea lespedeza yielded as much forage as N-fertilized grasses. Alfalfa and red clover altered the distribution of yield of the grasses, and may not be as compatible with perennial warm-season grasses as sericea lespedeza in the long-term. Interseeded legumes improved quality considerably in the second year.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences

Department dc:contributor.department

Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2000

Author dc:creator

• El Hadj, Meriem

Chairs dc:contributor.committeechair

• McKenna, James R.
• Peterson, Paul R.

Committee member dc:contributor.committeemember

• Parrish, David J.

• Caucasian bluestem
• quality
• hay
• yield
• pasture
• compatibility.
• switchgrass
• legumes

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Dc Identifier Other

etd-07062000-17330011

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/33897