A comparison of the yield of three grass species at various levels of nitrogenous fertilizer sown alone or in a mixture

Abstract

SummaryThe production of herbage dry matter harvested from a mixture of S. 24 perennial ryegrass, S. 37 cocksfoot and S. 48 timothy is compared with the yields of the same species sown alone. Various levels of fertilizer nitrogen were applied to the grasses which were harvested by cutting fourteen times over a 3-year period.The possibility that the mixture produced a greater yield than swards of pure species (after taking into account that the three species are not present in equal proportions in herbage harvested from the mixture) was examined using the concept of ‘the sum of the relative yields’. There was no evidence of a beneficial or antagonistic effect of one species on another; rather, the species seemed to be ‘mutually exclusive’ (de Wit & van den Bergh, 1965).The botanical composition of the mixture changed through the course of the experiment, e.g. cocksfoot became increasingly dominant, particularly at the highest level of nitrogen. Changes in composition accounted for any tendency for the yield of the mixture to deviate from the mean of the pure-sown swards.Some of the advantages and disadvantages of using mixtures are discussed and it is concluded that a rational approach to grassland husbandry should be based on swards sown to a single grass variety.