The importance of winter forage crops and mixtures in total fodder needs

Abstract

Winter cereals and legume crops may be used in early spring as forages. The surpluses of produced mixtures are ensilaged. Under dry land conditions some mixtures are dried for hay, or used for grain production after physiological maturity. The early cultivars of fodder rapeseed (Perko and Starška) were cut as early as in the middle of April, winter rye at the end of April, triticale at the beginning of May, while winter wheat cutting time was in the middle of May. Winter fodder pea can be used from the beginning of May and by the middle of June. The mixture of winter rye and fodder pea yielded 32.5 %, 26.3 %, 56.0 % and 26.0 % more green mass yield, dry matter yield, digestible crude protein and starch units, respectively, compared to pure winter rye crop. Generally, the advantages of winter cereals and legume mixtures are in higher and more stable yields, balanced fodder, easy cut, and decreased yield losses.

Keywords

• winter forage crops
• cutting time
• yields
• quality