Optimizing Yield and Quality of Silage and Hay for Pea–Barley Mixtures Ratio under Irrigated Arid Environments

Walid Soufan,Nasser A Al-Suhaibani

doi:10.3390/su132413621

Abstract

The changing climate, water scarcity, reduction in the land area under forage crops, expanding ruminant population, burgeoning demands for milk and meat production and food security concerns all insist on a necessary increase in forage production and quality. Cereal–legume mixed intercropping offers a biologically superior option to boost herbage yield and quality of preserved fodder (hay and silage), provided that rationalization of the component crop’s proportional ratio is performed. Therefore, the current study was conducted to determine the forage yield and quality of barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) and pea (Pisum sativum L.) mixtures at the ratios 100:0, 75:25, 50:50, 25:75 and 0:100. The experiment was laid out in the regular arrangement of a randomized complete block design with three replicates. The results exhibited that forage quality was significantly affected by the mixture ratio. There was a significant improvement in protein, fiber rate and digestibility from the mixture. The ratios of barley and pea with 50:50 and 25:75 produced the maximum productivity and the best quality of forage. Regarding forage preservation, silage recorded higher contents of crude protein, ash and lower fiber contents than hay. Among seed mixtures, 0:100 ratio of barley–pea yielded the highest quality of silage with the maximum crude protein, ash and digestibility with lowest fiber contents.

Highlights

Under the changing climate, mixed cropping, which entails cereal and legume mixtures, can serve as a biologically viable approach to impart sustainability and regenerative capacity to forage production systems
The results indicate that the percentage of plant parts of barley and pea were varied due to their mixing ratios (Figure 2)
The current findings aligned with the postulated research hypothesis, as varying seed-blending ratios imparted significant influence on the yield attributes, forage yield and nutritional quality of hay and silage under arid conditions

Summary

Introduction

Under the changing climate, mixed cropping, which entails cereal and legume mixtures, can serve as a biologically viable approach to impart sustainability and regenerative capacity to forage production systems. The uninterrupted supply of forage in sufficient quantity which has acceptable nutritional value for large and small ruminants continues to remain one of the serious challenges. The decreasing agricultural land area due to human settlements, scant irrigation supplies for crop production, farmers’ interest in high-revenue generating cash crops and the persistently changing climate have all further deteriorated forage production [4]. Leguminous forage crops give high nutritional values in comparatively lower quantities [5]. Mixed cropping of cereal with legumes might serve as a pragmatic strategy to cope with the challenges of forage scarcity, inferior nutritional quality, unsustainable farming practices and deteriorating soil fertility.

Methods

Results

Conclusion