Abstract
To improve pre-harvest forage quality of lucerne an increase of the cutting height was studied under two high quality cutting schedules in a two year experiment. Two different harvest schedules (VB, first cut at late vegetative and following cuts at bud stage; VF, first cut at late vegetative and following cuts at early flowering) and two cutting height (4 and 14 cm) were compared to evaluate dry matter (DM) yield, morphological stage of development, crude protein (CP), NDF, ADL, and enzymatic organic matter digestibility (OMD). The stratified quality was analysed in six canopy segments for a summer cut. Increasing the cutting height improved the protein and digestibility contents in both schedules without compromising the stand persistence. In the VB schedule the increase in the cutting height resulted in an NDF that was lower than 370 g kg-1 DM, while the OMD were always higher than 700 g kg-1 OM, both considered as threshold values for quality purposes. The OMD of the bottom parts of stem remained almost constant till 22 cm with values of 470 and 400 g kg-1 OM for VB and VF, respectively. Leaves showed a constant quality with a CP content of 318 g kg-1 DM and OMD of 769 g kg-1 OM. The increase in the cutting height leads to relevant improvement in the forage quality when performed at vegetative and early bud stages, while on more mature forages the increase in the height of cut proved to be a valuable method to increase forage quality only when performed over 20 cm.
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Claims 10
Claim · model-written summary
Higher cutting height improved protein and digestibility in both schedules.
- Taxon
- Lucerne
Medicago sativat0 - Treatment
- Increasing the cutting heighte0
- Outcome
- protein and digestibility contentse0
- Direction
- improvede0
- Qualifier
- both schedulese0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Increasing the cutting height improved the protein and digestibility contents in both schedules without compromising the stand persistence.”
t0“Lucerne”
Claim · model-written summary
Higher cutting height did not compromise stand persistence.
- Taxon
- LucerneMedicago sativat0
- Treatment
- Increasing the cutting heighte0
- Outcome
- stand persistencee0
- Direction
- without compromisinge0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Increasing the cutting height improved the protein and digestibility contents in both schedules without compromising the stand persistence.”
t0“Lucerne”
Claim · model-written summary
In the VB schedule, higher cutting height yielded NDF below 370 g kg-1 DM.
- Taxon
- LucerneMedicago sativat0
- Treatment
- increase in the cutting heighte0
- Outcome
- NDFe0
- Direction
- lower thane0
- Value
- 370 g kg-1 DMe0
- Qualifier
- VB schedulee0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“In the VB schedule the increase in the cutting height resulted in an NDF that was lower than 370 g kg-1 DM, while the OMD were always higher than 700 g kg-1 OM”
t0“Lucerne”
Claim · model-written summary
In the VB schedule, OMD was above 700 g kg-1 OM.
- Taxon
- LucerneMedicago sativat0
- Outcome
- OMDe0
- Direction
- higher thane0
- Value
- 700 g kg-1 OMe0
- Qualifier
- VB schedulee0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“In the VB schedule the increase in the cutting height resulted in an NDF that was lower than 370 g kg-1 DM, while the OMD were always higher than 700 g kg-1 OM”
t0“Lucerne”
Claim · model-written summary
Bottom stem OMD stayed near 470 g kg-1 OM to 22 cm in VB.
- Taxon
- LucerneMedicago sativat0
- Organ / stage
- bottom parts of steme0
- Outcome
- OMD of the bottom parts of steme0
- Direction
- remained almost constante0
- Value
- 470e0
- Qualifier
- VBe0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“The OMD of the bottom parts of stem remained almost constant till 22 cm with values of 470 and 400 g kg-1 OM for VB and VF, respectively.”
t0“Lucerne”
Claim · model-written summary
Bottom stem OMD stayed near 400 g kg-1 OM to 22 cm in VF.
- Taxon
- LucerneMedicago sativat0
- Organ / stage
- bottom parts of steme0
- Outcome
- OMD of the bottom parts of steme0
- Direction
- remained almost constante0
- Value
- 400 g kg-1 OMe0
- Qualifier
- VFe0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“The OMD of the bottom parts of stem remained almost constant till 22 cm with values of 470 and 400 g kg-1 OM for VB and VF, respectively.”
t0“Lucerne”
Claim · model-written summary
Leaf CP content was 318 g kg-1 DM.
- Taxon
- LucerneMedicago sativat0
- Organ / stage
- Leavese0
- Outcome
- CP contente0
- Value
- 318 g kg-1 DMe0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Leaves showed a constant quality with a CP content of 318 g kg-1 DM and OMD of 769 g kg-1 OM.”
t0“Lucerne”
Claim · model-written summary
Leaf OMD was 769 g kg-1 OM.
- Taxon
- LucerneMedicago sativat0
- Organ / stage
- Leavese0
- Outcome
- OMDe0
- Value
- 769 g kg-1 OMe0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Leaves showed a constant quality with a CP content of 318 g kg-1 DM and OMD of 769 g kg-1 OM.”
t0“Lucerne”
Claim · model-written summary
Higher cutting height improved forage quality at vegetative and early bud stages.
- Taxon
- LucerneMedicago sativat0
- Organ / stage
- vegetative and early bud stagese0
- Treatment
- increase in the cutting heighte0
- Outcome
- forage qualitye0
- Direction
- improvemente0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“The increase in the cutting height leads to relevant improvement in the forage quality when performed at vegetative and early bud stages”
t0“Lucerne”
Claim · model-written summary
For more mature forage, raising cutting height improved quality only above 20 cm.
- Taxon
- LucerneMedicago sativat0
- Treatment
- increase in the height of cute0
- Outcome
- forage qualitye0
- Direction
- increasee0
- Value
- 20 cme0
- Qualifier
- more mature foragese0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“on more mature forages the increase in the height of cut proved to be a valuable method to increase forage quality only when performed over 20 cm.”
t0“Lucerne”
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