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Plant Species Diversity and Management of Temperate Forage and Grazing Land Ecosystems

^a USDA-ARS Pasture Systems and Watershed Management Research Unit, Building 3702 Curtin Road, University Park, PA 16802
^b Department of Horticulture and Crop Science, The Ohio State University, 202 Kottman Hall, 2021 Coffey Road, Columbus OH 43210
^c Animal Sciences Section, Department of Agricultural Science, Imperial College London, Wye Campus, Kent, U.K. TN25 5AH
^d Department of Crop Science, University of Illinois, 1102 S. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801
^e School of Natural Resources, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 68583-0814

View larger version (15K): [in a new window]   Fig. 1. Dry matter yields of 50 different grass–legume mixtures planted in 2.7- by 15.3-m plots near Storrs, CT, in 1932. The soil was a Charlton fine sandy loam (coarse-loamy, mixed, active, mesic Typic Dystrudepts) with pH 5.8. Plots were harvested three times per year during 1933, 1934, and 1935. Data points are 3-yr averages for each mixture. Adapted from Table 5 of Brown and Munsell (1936). Legumes included red clover, white clover (small leaf and large leaf type), alfalfa, and alsike clover (Trifolium hybridum L.). Grasses included orchardgrass, perennial ryegrass, timothy, smooth bromegrass, tall oatgrass [Arrhenatherum elatius (L.) Beauv. ex J. & K. Pres], meadow fescue (Festuca pratensis Huds.), redtop (Agrostis alba L.), reed canarygrass, bentgrass (Agrostis tenuis L.), Kentucky bluegrass, Canada bluegrass (Poa compressa L.), and sweet vernal grass.

View larger version (17K): [in a new window]   Fig. 2. Yield of fresh green forage from 93 grass–legume mixtures grown in three different experiments under irrigation at Logan, UT, during 1944 to 1951. The soil type was a Millville silt loam (Coarse-silty, carbonatic, mesic Typic Haploxerolls). Manure and P fertilizer had been applied to maintain high soil fertility. Plots were grazed three or four times per year with milking cows and yields measured before grazing. Data points are averages of 6 yr in Experiment A, 4 yr in Experiment B, and 5 yr in Experiment D. Adapted from Tables 5, 8, and 11 from Bateman and Keller (1956).

View larger version (12K): [in a new window]   Fig. 3. Yield of fresh green forage from selected grass–legume mixtures grown under irrigation at Logan, UT, during 1947 to 1951. The selected mixtures were of the seven highest yielding legumes and grasses (Ladino white clover, alfalfa, red clover, smooth bromegrass, orchardgrass, tall oatgrass, and reed canarygrass) from Experiment D in Fig. 2. The low-yielding seven-species mixture consisted of a (then) recommended mixture of smooth bromegrass, orchardgrass, alsike clover, Kentucky bluegrass, meadow fescue, perennial ryegrass, and a small-leafed white clover. This mixture became dominated by grasses during the experiment. Plots were grazed three or four times per year with milking cows and yields measured before grazing. Data points are averages of 5 yr. Adapted from Table 9 from Bateman and Keller (1956).

View larger version (40K): [in a new window]   Fig. 4. Dry matter yields of a perennial ryegrass–white clover mixture and a herbal ley mixture (23 species of grasses, legumes, and forbs) compared with perennial ryegrass fertilized with 400 kg N ha–1 under sheep grazing in New Zealand. The herbal ley and grass monoculture did not differ in yield, whereas both treatments yielded more than the grass–clover mixture. Data are from Ruz-Jerez et al. (1991). LSD = least significant difference.

View larger version (30K): [in a new window]   Fig. 5. Spring (April to May) and summer–fall (June–October) yield vs. species number sown for one site in Pennsylvania and two sites in Ohio. Open symbols are treatments unique to that site and closed symbols are treatments common to all three sites, dotted lines connect the mean for each number of species and solid lines are the regression for those means, vertical bars show mean standard error for each species treatment, symbols are means of three or four replicates. Data are revised from Barker et al. (2003).