Scientific Research Projects :: Details

New technologies in pea and vetch production for the needs of animal production

Project Leader: Zvonimir Štafa

Summary

Agricultural areas of the Republic of Croatia are restricted. They are distributed over different regions with different climates. To meet the forage requirements in each region and climate zone, use is made of those crops and cultivars which tolerate soil and climate restraints. Forage crop species and cultivars are used in pure culture and in mixtures to meet forage requirements (roughage, concentrate). To realize the set goal - production of good quality forage on own farms, it is necessary to determine the following:

• crops, cultivars and crop mixtures;
• the most rational types of production and use, which will meet the quantity and quality requirements in a certain period, sowing dates, utilization, ratios and fertilization, as well as ways of storing surpluses of forage produced;
• technologies that will provide the required forage (type and quantity) with maximum possible protection of soil and environment in plant production systems.

Winter crops, particularly mixtures of legumes (pea, vetch) with cereals, intended for good quality roughage (green, silage, hay) and grain (concentrate) are not sufficiently spread in this country despite very favourable conditions for their production. For this purpose, besides the available production technologies, new technologies should be devised, which will be more rational, ecologically acceptable, and more cost-effective. For this purpose, influence of bacterization of new winter pea and common vetch genotypes with indigenous strains of Rhizobium leguminosarum bv. viciae (Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Agriculture) will be investigated. Genotype x strain compatibility in binding atmospheric nitrogen as well as the effect of nitrogen fixation on the yield and quality of produced mass and seed will be assessed by comparison with conventional technologies in different plant production systems and in different regions. By defining the most rational production technologies for winter stock pea and common vetch seed in mixtures with cereals, the required quantities of seed, which is now in short supply on the market, will be produced. In this way, winter mixtures will meet the needs of quality forage on farms (green, silage, hay) in early spring and of grain-concentrates as well as liberate areas for sowing other crops in forage sequence (maize, sugar sorghum, stock kale, etc.). Combinations of winter mixtures (pea or vetch with cereals) enable green mass yields of 8 to 16 or even more t/ha dry matter, and up to 3 t/ha of proteins under favourable conditions.