Abstract
The aim of this paper is to evaluate the effect of different doses of spent mushroom substrate and cow slurry on sugar content and digestibility of hybrid alfalfa and grass mixtures. The main factors were different doses of organic material: mushroom substrate and slurry, and the following legume grass mixtures: M1-orchard grass (Dactylis glomerata), perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne), and hybrid alfalfa (Medicago x varia T. Martyn); M2-orchard grass, hybrid alfalfa; M3-perennial ryegrass, hybrid alfalfa. In each growing season, the mixtures were harvested three times during three years of their full use. Sugar content and dry matter digestibility were determined with near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) using the NIRFlex N-500 spectrometer. Of all fertilizer treatments, the application of mushroom substrate at a dose of 20 t·ha−1 in combination with 40 m3 of slurry resulted in the best forage quality with its highest digestibility. In the mixture of perennial ryegrass and hybrid alfalfa increasing doses of mushroom substrate with decreasing doses of slurry lowered soluble sugar content and digestibility.
Highlights
Legume grass mixtures provide one of the best balanced types of roughage [1,2,3,4]
Sugar content steadily increased in a statistically significant way throughout the experiment from 51.76 g·kg−1 in the first year to 67.19 g·kg−1 in the third one (Table 2). e plans responded to almost all fertilizer treatments with an increase in sugar content. e highest content was in the forage harvested in 2015, the last year of the experiment, on the plot where slurry was applied (77.19 g·kg−1), with the lowest in 2013 in plants treated with 20 t of the mushroom substrate with 40 m3 of slurry (48.31 g·kg−1)
Significant differences were only noted between the first mixture and the third. ey contained, respectively, 59.36 and 58.36 g·kg−1 of sugar
Summary
Legume grass mixtures provide one of the best balanced types of roughage [1,2,3,4]. Such mixtures are often used in organic production systems [5], being beneficial for successive plants in crop rotation [6]. Application of organic materials in the cultivation of feed crops, that is, legume grass mixtures, can improve plant yields, but it increases soil fertility. E aim of the paper is to evaluate the content of sugars and digestibility of hybrid alfalfa and grass mixtures treated with different doses of spend mushroom substrate and cow slurry. E main experimental factors were different doses of mushroom substrate and cow slurry applied to legume grass mixtures. Ere were three experimental factors in the study: (1) treatment, with spent mushroom substrate and cow slurry used separately and in various combinations; (2) harvests/years; (3) legume grass mixtures. E content of total nitrogen, phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) in the mushroom substrate was as follows: 24.50; 9.50; 13.20 g·kg−1 DM, and in cow slurry it was 48.00; 12.64; 43.16 g·kg−1 DM. Fisher’s F-test was used to determine whether the impact of experimental factors was significant, while the value of the LSD0.05 was calculated with Tukey’s test. e Statistica program, version 10.0 StatSoft, was applied for all other calculations [21]
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