Features of perennial forage agriculture in the North Caucasian foothills

Abstract

Abstract The article presents the results of studies on the seeding time of perennial forage crops in the foothill area of North Ossetia-Alania. An agricultural method which is necessary is the pre-sowing treatment of seeds with natural agronomic ores in a ratio of 1:2 and simultaneous seed scarification. The studies revealed that the most optimal seeding time in terms of field germination and plant safety for harvesting for all the studied crops was the variant of the middle seeding time in the second ten-day period of May, when the soil temperature was warmed up to 12-14 °C. Also, when seeded late, the plantings of the studied crops significantly decreased in terms of leaf area—by 1.9 thousand m2/ha for burnet, by 1.2 thousand m2/ha for clover, by 1.5 thousand m2/ha for medicago, by 1.5 thousand m2/ha for sainfoin, by 1.5 thousand m2/ha for galega, by 0.8 thousand m2/ha for festulolium. Over four years, the average biochemical composition of perennial grasses of different seeding periods did not differ significantly in the content of forage units, digestible protein and metabolic energy. Thus, depending on the seeding time, fluctuations in the content of forage units were as follows: 2.21-2.24 t/ha for clover; 2.09-2.21 t/ha for medicago; 2.34-2.46 t/ha for sainfoin; 2.69-2.79 t/ha for galega; 2.27-2.41 t/ha for festulolium; 2.56-2.74 t/ha for burnet. The digestible protein content, respectively: 0.37-0.44 t/ha for clover; 0.51-0.55 t/ha for medicago; 0.49-0.54 t/ha for sainfoin; 0.43-0.57 t/ha for galega; 0.38-0.44 t/ha for festulolium; 0.57-0.64 t/ha for burnet. The output of metabolic energy was: 48.9-51.7 GJ t/ha for clover; 38.4-43.2 GJ t/ha for medicago; 39.3-42.4 GJ t/ha for sainfoin; 41.7-46.3 GJ t/ha for galega; 48.7-52.3 GJ t/ha for festulolium; 40.5-42.7 t/ha for burnet. Moreover, the crops of early and medium time of seeding had the highest values of biochemical composition.