A method to standardise meadow phenological observations: evaluation and applications
2016
Vuffray, Z | Amaudruz, M | Deléglise, C | Jeangros, B | Meisser, M | Mosimann, E
First hay cut is important for feed autonomy of livestock farms as it constitutes the largest part of the annual fodder production. Looking for the best compromise between fodder quality and quantity during first growth is therefore crucial to optimise meadow and feed rations management. In this context, phenolo- gy (i.e. development stages of plants) is a useful tool since it is closely related to fodder quality. Every spring since 1995, meadow phenological development is monitored on about 80 plots in western Switzerland to give farmers references of standardised development stage for different classes of elevation. The aims of this study are to present the “equivalent cocksfoot stage” method used to assess standardised phenological stage and to show the results of its robustness evaluation. The method was developed in 1994 on four years of phenological observations. Now with 21 years of data, it is possible to re-evaluate the method and to sum- marize trends of meadow spring development. Main findings are that relative development pace of the reference species is not changing with altitude gradient, nor with particular years (very late or early springs) and that there is an overall trend towards earlier meadow phenological development
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