Productivity of mixtures of Italian ryegrass and red clover

Two red clover ( Trifolium pratense ) cultivars, Red Head (tetraploid) and Kuhn (diploid), were sown at a seed rate of 13 kg ha −1 either alone or in mixture with Italian ryegrass ( Lolium multiflorum ) cv. RvP sown at seed rates of 10, 15, 20 or 30 kg ha −1 . RvP was also sown alone at a seed rate of 30 kg ha −1 and received nil or 300 kg ha −1 fertilizer a −1 fertilizer N. All plots were established using the barley cultivar Midas sown at a seed rate of 100 kg ha −1 as a nurse crop. Neither clover cultivar nor ryegrass seed rate significantly influenced either dry matter harvested or botanical composition over the 3 harvest years. On average over all years the grass‐clover mixtures produced 75% of the yield of the N‐fertilized RvP, 125% of the clover monocultures and 225% of the unfertilized RvP. The red clover contribution to the total dry matter harvested of the mixtures averaged 45–60%. The dry matter concentrations of the mixtures were considerably higher than those of the pure clover stands. In the third year yields were markedly reduced in comparison with those in the first and second years. It was concluded that Italian ryegrass can be a suitable companion grass for red clover. Its superior yielding capacity over other grasses such as perennial ryegrass or timothy under a conservation management can be coupled to advantage with red clover to give a sward which Is essentially stable, at least over a 2‐ to 3‐year cropping period, although giving slightly reduced yields in the third year. Italian ryegrass‐red clover mixtures, without the use of fertilizer N, can produce high DM yields of good quality herbage.