The diagnosis and recommendation integrated system (DRIS) for diagnosing the nutrient status of grassland swards : I. Model establishment

Abstract

Herbage analysis offers a definitive means of determining the N, P, K and S status of perennial ryegrass swards. Unfortunately, the results of such analyses can be difficult to interpret, simply because the minimum or 'critical' concentration of a nutrient in plant tissue for optimum growth, varies both with crop age and with changes in the concentrations of other nutrients. The Diagnosis and Recommendation Integrated System (DRIS) could help to improve the reliability of such interpretations. Diagnoses made using DRIS are based on relative rather than on absolute concentrations of nutrients in plant tissue, and as such should be comparatively independent of crop age.