Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Mixtures of Legumes with Cereals as a Source of Feed for Animals
http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/58358
term of the stems length, leaf arrangement, susceptibility to lodging and length of the growing
season. They also differ in term of their complementarity in relation to cereals. It is important
to choose the cultivars which yield best under given habitat conditions. The height of the
components in the mixtures and their diverse habitus determine the canopy architecture. Large
differences in the height of plants lead to layered structure of the stand, which creates less
favorable light conditions for the species with shorter stems. Particularly unfavorable condi‐
tions occur when legumes dominate over cereals, because it leads to the lodging of plants and,
consequently, to the yield reduction [44, 45]. High yielding potential was recorded for tendril-
leaf cultivars of pea, which are particularly useful for mixtures with spring cereals grown for
seeds. Due to the large amount of tendrils, they have a lower coefficient of transpiration and
are less susceptible to lodging. Self-finishing cultivars of faba bean are very useful for legume-
cereal mixtures, which under favorable soil and moisture conditions yield better in the
mixtures with cereals compared to their sole crops [36].
One of the most important factors determining appropriate yielding of mixtures is the share
of components seeds at sowing. Cereal sown with legumes gives greater yielding stability of
the mixture, but it is also a strong competitor to the legume which causes that the share of
legume seeds in the mixture yield is often variable and low. The studies on sowing density
and the share of mixture components show that the percentage of legumes seeds should range
from 30 to 50%. At tendency to higher lodging, of for example peas, a lower share of about
30% is more favorable [16, 46, 47]. The yields of mixtures primarily depends on the yield of
cereal component, while only to a small degree on legume species. Increasing the share of
legume seeds in the sowing norm increases their share in the yield, but the yield of grain cereals
and the total yield of mixtures generally decrease (Tables 5, 6). This relationship has been
confirmed for the mixtures of spring cereals with peas, yellow and blue lupine [39, 40, 42, 45,
47, 48, 49]. The yield and stability of the mixtures are therefore determined by the yield of
cereals, and to a lower extent - by legumes. When determining the quantitative composition
of the mixtures components of spring cereals with legumes, the following factors should be
taken into account: the degree of lodging of the components, plant height, time of maturity
and desirable share of legume seeds in the mixture yield, which should range between 20 to
40%.
Lupine share (%)
Cereal species in mixture
barley
wheat
triticale
barley
wheat
triticale
yield of mixture seeds (t·ha
-1
)
share of lupine seeds (%)
40
4.03 c*
4.00 c
4.23 b
5.2
7.3
8.0
60
3.74 b
3.80 b
4.17 b
9.4
10.3
10.8
80
3.41 a
3.34 a
3.51 a
14.8
15.4
15.0
* Number within columns followed by the same letters do not differ significantly
Table 5.
Yield of seeds mixtures and share of blue lupine seeds in mixtures depending on cereal species and share of
blue lupine in sowing [own study].
