The effect of date of winter grazing on the yield of a lucerne-grass ley

Abstract

It has been shown that lucerne/grass mixtures, especially those containing a high proportion of cocksfoot, can make a valuable contribution to the winter feeding of livestock when the autumn growth is allowed to stand in the field until the winter. For instance, Hughes (1954) showed that it was possible to carry store cattle right through the winter on such herbage with little supplementary feeding. Other experimental work (Barker, Hanley & Ridgman, 1955) has shown that mowing or grazing this autumn growth in September may lead to poorer production in subsequent years than October defoliation. It therefore seemed desirable to determine the effect of date of grazing in the winter on the subsequent yield of a lucerne/grass ley and two experiments for this purpose were carried out at Cambridge from 1953 to 1957.