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Growth os Subterranean Clover Established with a Cereal Companion Crop 1
Author(s) -
McGowan A. A.,
Williams W. A.
Publication year - 1971
Publication title -
agronomy journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.752
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1435-0645
pISSN - 0002-1962
DOI - 10.2134/agronj1971.00021962006300040039x
Subject(s) - agronomy , trifolium subterraneum , pasture , sowing , biology , hordeum vulgare , forage , crop , semis , grazing , intercropping , poaceae
The establishment of subterranean clover ( Trifolium subterraneum L.) pasture sown with a cereal companion crop (barley, Hordeum vulgare ) was studied on nine sites in the Sacramento Valley and adjacent foothills in California. Where grain yields were 2,000 kg/ha or less and soil moisture was adequate in April (last month of the rainy season), undersown clover produced 300 to 500 kg/ha of seed, over 100 seeds per plant, and yields of grain were not reduced by the undersowing. Thus, in areas better suited to grazing than to cereal farming, a cereal companion crop can increase the forage produced in the first year of sowing while still allowing good growth and seed production of subterranean clover.