Kura clover agrobiological and nutritional characteristics
2002
Selge, A. | Keres, I. (Estonian Agricultural Univ., Tartu (Estonia))
Experiments were performed to test the agronomic potential of kura clover in the seed mixtures with diminished seeding rates. During the seeding year a very slow establishment of kura clover (sown with perennial ryegrass) was observed: kura clover gave up to 7% of the total DM yield. The kura clover plants survived winter 2000/2001 well, but the distribution in the sward was not observed in the second year. The established grass sward density was rather high in the seeding year (around 10 000 tillers per square m) in 2000. In 2001, the white clover content increased to 80% of the DM yield but at the same time the grass sward density was decreased to 2900 tillers per square m. The kura clover plants are characterised by high proportion of leaves to stem and high nutritional characteristics with protein concentrations ranging between 19 and 23% as well as the neutral detergent fibre (NDF) concentrations between 24 and 38%. The experiments showed that the strains of Rhizobium bacteria required for kura clover do not naturally occur in Estonian soils and proper inoculation of kura clover seeds before planting is critical to get well-nodulated and persistent plants.
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