Annual forage grasses

Importance

In the 1970s-80s in the USSR, 10-12 million ha were occupied by annual forage grasses. By 2001-2005, the area occupied in Russia was 5.9 million ha. The gross hay harvest fell by a factor of 3 over this period. The average hay yield did not change and was 1.5-1.7 t/ha. Official statistics on the species and varieties of annual grasses used in Russia are not kept.

Annual forage grasses are used to obtain green fodder, hay, silage, granulated and briquetted feeds, and also as pasture plants.

For improving the quality and nutritional value of feeds, mixed sowings of cereals and legumes, and sometimes with plants of other families, for example, sunflower, are important.

In zones of sufficient moisture, they serve as good fallow-occupying crops. For example, a fallow field occupied by a mixture of annual grasses makes it possible to obtain green fodder and promptly free the field for sowing winter crops. According to data from 24 years of observations by the Department of Crop Production of the MSAA named after K. A. Timiryazev, a vetch-oat mixture in the occupied fallow of a six-field forage crop rotation made it possible to obtain 25 t/ha of green mass annually.

Annual forage grasses can be used as stubble and aftercut crops. In regions where after harvesting grain crops there remain sufficient warm and wet days, stubble sowings of vetch-oat or pea-oat mixtures yield 15 t/ha of green mass.

The importance of annual forage grasses in field feed production is increasing due to the intensification of agriculture, which creates favorable conditions for expanding the sown areas of annual grasses and increasing their yields. From a biological point of view, an intensive crop rotation is understood as a crop rotation that allows cultivated plants to accumulate the maximum possible amount of photosynthetically active solar radiation. At the same time, the use of annual grasses as intermediate crops makes it possible to increase the use of solar energy by cultivated plants.

Annual forage grasses, primarily legumes, are of great agronomic importance. Almost all of them can serve as good predecessors for grain and industrial crops in crop rotation. They can serve as a cover crop for perennial grasses.

Biological characteristics

Annual forage grasses differ significantly in biological characteristics and feed properties.

Among annual forage grasses there are species with slow growth in the initial period and relatively high shade tolerance. For example, a triple mixture of vetch, oats, and Sudan grass makes it possible in the first cut to obtain green mass of vetch and oats, and in the second and subsequent cuts, green mass from stems and leaves of Sudan grass.

Their growing seasons differ; unlike perennial grasses, they are characterized by more rapid accumulation of yield. Cutting maturity may occur 55-65 days after sowing.

Annual forage grasses are characterized by a short growing season, which makes it possible to sow them at different times, thus providing animals with green fodder over a long period. The combination of forage crops with short and long growing seasons also makes it possible to extend the period of use of green fodder in animal husbandry.

Many species of annual grasses, for example, spring vetch, field pea, grass pea, faba beans, produce high seed yields with a high content of protein and essential amino acids, especially lysine.

Main crops

Annual forage grasses can be divided into two groups depending on the family to which the crop belongs: annual leguminous grasses and annual cereal (Poaceae) grasses.

Yield

The average hay yield of annual forage grasses collected at variety-testing stations is about 4 t/ha. Under irrigation, the yield increases significantly. Thus, at variety-testing stations in Saratov Oblast under irrigation, 10.5 t/ha of hay is harvested, in Penza Oblast — 12.7 t/ha, in Krasnodar Krai — 10.5 t/ha. However, under production conditions, the yield of annual grasses is significantly lower, about 1.4-1.6 t/ha.

The yield of annual grasses used as intermediate crops was, for example, in experiments of the Voronezh Agricultural Institute for a vetch-oat mixture sown after winter rye for grain, 8.8 t/ha of green mass; in Ciscarpathia — 7.9 t/ha.

References

1. Vavilov P. P., Gritsenko V. V., Kuznetsov V. S., et al. (1986). Plant Growing. Ed. by Vavilov P. P. 5th ed., revised and enlarged. Moscow: Agropromizdat.
2. Kolomeichenko V. V. (2007). Plant Growing/Textbook. Moscow: Agrobiznesentr.
3. Niklyaev V. S. (2000). Fundamentals of Agricultural Production Technology. Agriculture and Plant Growing. Moscow: Bylina.