THE POTENTIAL OF WINTER COVER CROPS FOR EARLY SPRING FODDER

Abstract

The use of cover crops is a recognized and well known method for soil tilth, soil nutrients conservation and weed suppression, whereas the utilization of winter cover crops for early spring fodder is not sufficiently investigated, especially in organic agriculture, where special rules have been applied. The experimental set up near Valpovo, Croatia, at the eutric brown cambisol soil type, during the years of 2007 and 2008, aimed toward effects of different cover crops and their mixtures on the biomass production and cover crops potential for early spring fodder. The experimental set-up was CRBD in four repetitions, with eight cover crop treatments after soybean (Glycine max L.) and pop-corn maize (Zea mays L. var. everta): WW – winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), RY – winter rye (Secale cereale L.) FP – field pea (Pisum arvense L.); HV – hairy vetch (Vicia vilosa L.); WF – mixture of WW and FP; WH – mixture of WW and HV; RF – mixture of RY and FP; and RH – mixture of RY and HV. The highest dry biomass production treatments were WW and RY after soybean with 3123 and 2987 kg of dry matter per ha, and RY and WW after maize, with 1656 and 1399 kg of dry matter ha –1 , respectively. Regarding protein production potential, WW and RY treatments after soybean yielded 226 and 183 kg of proteins, whereas HV and WH treatments after maize produced 155 and 143 kg of proteins, respectively.