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Abstract

In Northern Europe, leys often consist of grass-legume mixtures established in spring cereals. Changing climatic conditions, with recurring droughts in spring and early summer, increase the risk of poor ley establishment. This field experiment evaluated establishment of leys undersown in winter cereals, comparing grass-clover mixtures (red or white clover, timothy, meadow fescue, with or without perennial ryegrass), winter cereal (wheat, triticale, rye) and harvest time of winter cereal (as whole crop or threshed), at three locations in Sweden. Ley biomass (first cut in first harvest year) ranged from 3500 to 6100 kg DM ha–1 and percentage of clover from 2% to 17%, averaged over sites and treatments. Type of grass-clover mixture affected yield and clover proportion, with no or varying interactions with winter cereal and/or harvest time depending on site. Mixtures with red clover generally gave higher yields and more clover than mixtures with white clover, but winter cereal and its harvest time had site-specific impacts. At the northernmost site, clover proportion depended on three-way interactions between grass-clover mixture, winter cereal and harvest time of winter cereal (P

Keywords

climate change; harvest systems; ley establishment; ley mixtures; undersown

Published in

Grassland Science in Europe
2024, number: 29, pages: 718-720
Title: Why grasslands? : Proceedings of the 30th General Meeting of the European Grassland Federation Leeuwarden, the Netherlands 9-13 June 2024
Publisher: The Organising Committee of the 30th General Meeting of the European Grassland Federation

Conference

30th General Meeting of the European Grassland Federation Leeuwarden, the Netherlands 9-13 June 2024

SLU Authors

UKÄ Subject classification

Agricultural Science

Publication identifier

  • eISBN: 978-90-903-8494-8

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/143626