About the factors limiting white clover spreading in pasture swards
2001
Raave, H. (Estonian Agricultural Univ., Tartu (Estonia). Dept. of Grassland Science and Botany)
In this experiment white clover competitive ability was studied in the pasture swards of foxtail, cock's foot, meadow fescue, timothy, perennial ryegrass, bluegrass and red fescue. All these grasses are the most common species in Estonian pastures for seed mixtures. After seven years experiment it was cleared out that grasses studied can be divided into three groups according to the spreading of white clover in their swards. The first group was made of blue-grass, red fescue and timothy. The second group was made of meadow foxtail and cock's foot, in the sward of which the part of white clover during the first four years was the lowest. Meadow fescue and perennial ryegrass belong to the third group. In the yield the part of white clover was 16 per cent as an average in the first harvest year, but it increased every year and reached its maximum in the third and the fourth year, making 28.4 per cent-35.3 per cent from the yield. The importance of white clover depended on the speed of grass growth after seeding and in the spring of the first harvest year. During the first year of utilisation it could spread to a large extent only in the swards, where the grass species developed slowly. The amount of white clover in the grass swards with fast growth and the development was small in the first experimental years, and it started to increase only when the competitive ability of grasses decreased
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