Suitability of Festulolium to be grown in the mixtures with alfalfa

摘要

The objective of the study was to evaluate the potential of Festulolium as a mixture component to be grown with alfalfa. Field trials were run in the years 1994—1996 in Sadlowice (Lublin province) and Szelejew (the region of Wielkopolska). Yields and qualitative traits of the dry herbage of the mixtures of alfalfa cv. Radius with Festulolium SzD 249 (Sulino) and with meadow fescue cv. Westa were compared with each other and with alfalfa grown alone. The percentage of the seeds of the respective components in the seeding mixtures was 25% alfalfa + 75% grass, 50% alfalfa + 50% grass and 75% alfalfa + 25% grass. Because of a strong competitive effect Festulolium was inferior to meadow fescue as a mixture component to be grown with alfalfa. Yields were not affected by the percentages of seeds in the seeding mixture. Alfalfa-grass mixtures outyielded pure alfalfa, the yield increase being 22-32% for the alfalfa-Festulolium mixture (with a small percentage of alfalfa) and 10-17% for the Festulolium—meadow fescue mixture.The alfalfa —Festulolium mixture was superior with respect to in vitro digestibility, the digestibility of the alfalfa -meadow fescue mixture was intermediate and that of pure alfalfa was poor.