Evaluation of polycrop mixtures for swath grazing, soil health and economics

据报道，延长放牧季节对肉牛生产具有经济效益和环境效益。因此，在秋季和冬季对一年生牧草的大面积放牧越来越多地被加拿大的小牛部门所采用。晚些时候对一年生牧草进行大面积采伐，可以提供大量的牧草和高营养价值的饲料。最近，人们对使用复合作物（混合作物，覆盖作物）混合物进行带状放牧有相当大的兴趣，我们的研究试图解决生产者和工业关注的问题，这些问题涉及到在混合物中包括什么物种和物种数量需要不同的生态区域（土壤带）。因此，拟议的项目将展示利用不同一年生作物品种的复合作物延长放牧季节的农艺、放牧和土壤经济效益。混合物的选择物种包括饲料谷物，豆类，芸苔属植物，草和草本植物。该项目将在萨斯喀彻温大学的牲畜和饲料卓越中心（LFCE），克拉维茨克（深棕色土壤区）和加拿大农业和农业食品，斯威夫特河研究与发展中心，斯威夫特河SK（棕色土壤区）实施。为了研究多作物混作的潜在效益，将考虑三种处理：对照-一年生单作物燕麦饲料；含四种一年生饲料作物的简单复合作物；以及含有8种不同一年生饲料作物的复合复合作物。将收集和分析牧草生物量和营养价值、放牧动物生产性能、土壤理化性质和系统经济学的详细评价。这个项目的成果将填补现有的研究空白，并将提出在不同的生态区域使用一年生混合作物来延长放牧季节的建议，相对于单一作物的燕麦饲料。

It has been reported that extending the grazing season for beef cattle production has economic andenvironmental benefits. As such, swath grazing of annual forages during fall and winter is increasinglypracticed by the Canadian cow-calf sector. Swath gazing of annual forages late in the year can provide largequantities of forage and high nutritive value feed. Recently, there is considerable interest in the use of polycrop(cocktails, cover crops) mixtures for swath grazing and our research attempts to address producer andindustries concerns associated with what species to include and number of species in the mixture required indifferent ecoregions (soil zones). Therefore, the proposed project will demonstrate the agronomic, grazing, soiland economic benefits of extending the grazing season using polycrop blends of differing annual crop species.Selected species for the mixture include forage cereals, legumes, brassicas, grasses and herbs. This project willbe implemented at University of Saskatchewan's Livestock and Forage Centre of Excellence (LFCE), ClavetSK (Dark Brown soil zone) and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Swift Current Research & DevelopmentCentre, Swift Current SK (Brown soil zone). In order to investigate the potential benefits of polycrop blends,three treatments will be considered: Control - annual monocrop oat forage; Simple polycrop mixturecontaining four annual forage crop species; and Complex polycrop mixture containing eight different annualforage crop species. Detailed evaluation on forage biomass and nutritive value, grazing animal performance,soil physical and chemical properties, and system economics will be collected and analyzed. The outcomesfrom this project will fill the existing research gaps, and recommendations will be made on the use of annualpolycrop mixtures in different ecoregions to extend the grazing season, relative to a monocrop oat forage.