Production and nutritional characteristics of sunflowers and paiaguas palisadegrass under different forage systems in the off season

The high efficiency of sunflowers in extracting water from the soil under water stress conditions is a factor that promotes sunflower cultivation in the offseason. Therefore, sunflowers have been intercropped with grasses of the Brachiaria genus in crop-livestock integration systems. However, little is known of sowing methods for intercropping; thus, the present study aimed to assess sunflower agronomic traits and the production and nutritional characteristics of Paiaguas palisadegrass under different forage systems in the offseason in the midwest region of Brazil. The experiment was conducted at the Federal Institute of Goiás (Instituto Federal Goiano), Rio Verde Campus in a randomized block experimental design with four replicates. The treatments consisted of the following forage systems: sunflower monocropped; Paiaguas palisadegrass monocropped; sunflower rows intercropped with Paiaguas palisadegrass; sunflower inter-row intercropped with Paiaguas palisadegrass; and sunflower oversown and intercropped with Paiaguas palisadegrass. The results show that the sunflower rows intercropped with Paiaguas palisadegrass negatively affect the agronomic traits of sunflower; thus, inter-row sowing and oversowing are recommended. Sowing Paiaguas palisadegrass with oversown sunflower for forage production is hampered by intercropping and shows low forage production. In turn, the intercropped sowing method had no effect on the nutritional characteristics of the produced forage. Intercropping sunflowers with Paiaguas palisadegrass in the offseason has the potential to provide a promising cropping method for the production of achenes and after harvest enables the availability of forage with good nutritional value for use in the offseason in the midwest region of Brazil.