Crop yield and nutritional value of legume-grass agrophytocenoses including festulolium and perennial ryegrass

The article presents the case study of four years research conducted at the trial field of the NWDFGMRI, a separate subdivision of the FSBIS VolRC RAS. The experimental design included 10 variants in three-fold repetition. The working plot area was 11 m2. The authors used the following crops and cultivators: festulolium Allegro, perennial ryegrass VIC 66, timothy-grass Leningradskaya 204, meadow fescue Sverdlovskaya 37, awnless brome NWDFGMRI 189, smooth meadow-grass Limaga and Dar, red clover Dymkovsky, white clover Lugovik. The purpose of the research is to study the influence of species and cultivators of perennial grasses on productivity and nutritional value of pasture agrophytocenoses. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that for the first time in the Russian North conditions, sparsely distributed species and new cultivators of perennial grasses (festulolium, ryegrass) will be studied to form pasture phytocenoses. Pasture agrophytocenoses creation with new species and cultivators of grasses will allow developing herbage crop yield up to 50% and protein content up to 16.4-19.9% in the conditions of agricultural production. Research in this direction will be continued in the development of resource-saving technologies for creating highly productive agrophytocenoses of forage crops in the Russian North conditions.