Evaluation of polycrop mixtures for swath grazing, soil health and economics

多种作物混合物对大片放牧、土壤健康和经济的评价

• 批准号: 567484-2021
• 负责人: Lardner, HerbertHA
• 金额: $ 4.85万
• 依托单位: University of Saskatchewan
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Alliance Grants
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=743507
• 关键词: Evaluation; polycrop; mixtures; swath; grazing

It has been reported that extending the grazing season for beef cattle production has economic andenvironmental benefits. As such, swath grazing of annual forages during fall and winter is increasinglypracticed by the Canadian cow-calf sector. Swath gazing of annual forages late in the year can provide largequantities of forage and high nutritive value feed. Recently, there is considerable interest in the use of polycrop(cocktails, cover crops) mixtures for swath grazing and our research attempts to address producer andindustries concerns associated with what species to include and number of species in the mixture required indifferent ecoregions (soil zones). Therefore, the proposed project will demonstrate the agronomic, grazing, soiland economic benefits of extending the grazing season using polycrop blends of differing annual crop species.Selected species for the mixture include forage cereals, legumes, brassicas, grasses and herbs. This project willbe implemented at University of Saskatchewan's Livestock and Forage Centre of Excellence (LFCE), ClavetSK (Dark Brown soil zone) and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Swift Current Research & DevelopmentCentre, Swift Current SK (Brown soil zone). In order to investigate the potential benefits of polycrop blends,three treatments will be considered: Control - annual monocrop oat forage; Simple polycrop mixturecontaining four annual forage crop species; and Complex polycrop mixture containing eight different annualforage crop species. Detailed evaluation on forage biomass and nutritive value, grazing animal performance,soil physical and chemical properties, and system economics will be collected and analyzed. The outcomesfrom this project will fill the existing research gaps, and recommendations will be made on the use of annualpolycrop mixtures in different ecoregions to extend the grazing season, relative to a monocrop oat forage.

据报道，延长肉牛生产放牧季节具有经济效益和环境效益。因此，加拿大牛犊部门越来越多地在秋季和冬季对一年生牧草进行大片放牧。晚年放牧一年生牧草，可提供大量牧草和高营养价值的饲料。最近，人们对使用杂作（鸡尾酒、覆盖作物）混合物进行大片放牧产生了很大的兴趣，我们的研究试图解决生产者和行业对不同生态区（土壤区）需要包含哪些物种以及混合物中物种数量的担忧。因此，拟议项目将展示使用不同一年生作物品种的杂作混合物延长放牧季节的农艺、放牧、土壤和经济效益。混合物的选定品种包括饲料谷物、豆类、芸苔属植物、禾本科植物和草本植物。该项目将在萨斯喀彻温大学畜牧和饲料卓越中心（LFCE）、ClavetSK（深棕色土壤区）和加拿大农业与农业食品部、Swift Current 研究与开发中心、Swift Current SK（棕色土壤区）实施。为了研究多种作物混合物的潜在效益，将考虑三种处理方法： 对照 - 一年生单一作物燕麦饲料；含有四种一年生饲料作物的简单杂作混合物；含有八种不同一年生牧草作物的复杂多作物混合物。将收集和分析牧草生物量和营养价值、放牧动物性能、土壤理化性质以及系统经济性的详细评价。该项目的成果将填补现有的研究空白，并将就不同生态区使用一年生多作物混合物来延长放牧季节（相对于单一作物燕麦饲料）提出建议。