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

据报道，延长肉牛生产的放牧季节具有经济和环境效益。因此，加拿大母牛-小牛部门越来越多地在秋季和冬季对一年生牧草进行带状放牧。一年生牧草在一年中的后期进行带状放牧，可以提供大量的牧草和高营养价值的饲料。最近，有相当大的兴趣，在使用复合作物（鸡尾酒，覆盖作物）混合物的带状放牧和我们的研究试图解决生产者andindustries的关注与什么样的物种包括和物种的数量在混合物中所需的不同生态区（土壤带）。因此，拟议的项目将证明使用不同一年生作物品种的多种作物混合物延长放牧季节的农艺、放牧、土壤和经济效益。该项目将在萨斯喀彻温大学的畜牧和饲料卓越中心（LFCE），ClavetSK（深棕色土壤区）和加拿大农业和农业食品，斯威夫特卡伦特研究与开发中心，斯威夫特卡伦特SK（棕色土壤区）实施。为了研究多熟作物混播的潜在效益，将考虑三种处理：对照-一年生单一作物燕麦饲料;包含四种一年生饲料作物的简单多熟作物混播;包含八种不同一年生饲料作物的复杂多熟作物混播。对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进行详细的评价和分析。该项目的成果将填补现有的研究空白，并建议在不同生态区使用一年生多熟作物混合物，以延长放牧季节，相对于单一作物燕麦饲料。

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.