Evaluation of grassland quality
2004
Novak, J.,Slovak Univ. of Agriculture in Nitra (Slovak Republic). Faculty of Afrobiology and Food Resources, Dept. of Grassland Ecosystems and Fodder Crops, Tr. A. Hlinku 2, 949 76 Nitra
Evaluation of grassland quality was verified over ten years in 1,200 floristic analyses of grassland in the Western Carpathians. The quality of grassland can be understood on the base of floristic analysis. This analysis consists of the dominance (D) of individual species in floristic groups (in %): Monocotyledoneae - grasses (Poaceae), Monocotyledoneae - sedge and rush family (Cyperaceae + Juncaceae), Monocotyledoneae - families Liliaceae, Orchidaceae and Iridaceae, Dicotyledoneae - leguminous plants (Fabaceae), Dicotyledoneae - other families of dicotyledonous species, Pteridophyta - pterydophyte ferns (Aspidiaceae, Equisetaceae, Hypolepidaceae), and the rest constituted by Bryophyta (mosses) with a share of empty places, and their forage value (FV) in the grassland within the scale from -4 to 8. Evaluation of grassland quality (EGQ) oscillates within the range from minus values (toxic), through deleterious, worthless, low values, lower values, valuable, high values to top values of grassland with maximum value of 100. It can serve for the research and practical survey of the quality of pasture and meadow grasslands. The advantage of the given evaluation in comparison with the other types is the wider scale of forage values, simplicity of calculation and practical use of 100 point scale. The evaluation of grassland can give a clue for the general or partial reconstruction, eventually revitalisation to increase forage value. There must be made a compromise between aesthetic and feeding value of grassland. As the high portion of aesthetic species has low feeding value, and does not meet the requirements for animal nutrition, it is necessary to revitalise the grasslands by the additional seeding of valuable or high valuable species, accordingly to the intensity of use, even to the detriment of aesthetic value of the grassland.
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