Pasture improvement in montado extensive farming systems
2008
Carneiro, J.P.; Simões, N.; Maçãs, I.D.; Tavares-de-Sousa, M., Estação Nacional de Melhoramento de Plantas, Elvas (Portugal)
In general the persistence and better productivity in pastures is related to the use of mixtures of species and cultivars well adapted to the environmental conditions. Our experimental scheme was developed to determine to which extent it is important to integrate perennial grasses and, for our environmental conditions, what are the species yielding better results under rotational and extensive systems of pasture exploitation. Near Elvas, Portugal, trials were established to compare biodiverse sown pastures (CMIX) with natural ones (NS). The results show that, in terms of biomass yield, it is possible to detect, on the first year of the trial, a small positive response corresponding to CMIX. On the second year, the results show an important increase of CMIX in relation to NS. A finer analysis of the benefits of the sowing state reveals that on the second year there were very important increases in legume and grass proportion in the biomass. The grasses introduced that had more persistence are Dactylis glomerata followed by Lolium perene and Phalaris aquatica. The other perennial grass introduced in the mixture, Festuca arundinacea, had great difficulties to persist
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