Emergency seeding of cool‐season annuals into perennial grass after fall drought. Issue 1 (14th January 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Xiong, Yedan V.; Nave, Renata L. G.; Griffith, Andrew P.; Quinby, Marcia P.; Bates, Gary E.; Corbin, Michael D.
• Is Part Of: Crop, forage & turfgrass management. Volume 8:Issue 1(2022)
• Page Start: n/a
• Page End: n/a
• Publication Date: 2022-01-14
• Subjects: Crop science -- Periodicals; Agronomy -- Periodicals; Forage -- Periodicals; Turf management -- Periodicals; Agronomy; Crop science; Forage; Turf management; Periodicals; Electronic journals; 633
• DOI: 10.1002/cft2.20139
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2374-3832

Abstract

Abstract: Spring establishment of cool‐season annual grasses into poorly producing orchardgrass ( Dactylis glomerata L) (OG) swards may improve forage production and nutritive value in the southeastern United States following a fall drought. A randomized complete block experiment was conducted where annual ryegrass ( Lolium multiflorum Lam.) (AR) or forage oat ( Avena sativa L .) (FO) was interseeded into an existing OG stand over three seeding dates with (+) or without (–) a burndown herbicide (BD) treatment and compared with an OG monoculture (control). In 2017, after a warm and wet winter, the OG monoculture (control) was able to produce sufficient forage mass (FM) without significant reduction in nutritive value as compared with OG interseeded with AR or FO. In 2018, OG had approximately 2, 600 lb acre –1 less FM than in 2017, suggesting that recurrent fall drought with unfavorable winter conditions resulted in long‐term damage to the perennial sward. Meanwhile, treatments without BD did not show higher FM in the beginning of the season. Burndown treatment in general increased FM and nutritive value. An economic analysis of the study also revealed results suggesting that interseeding AR and FO in the spring is not economically viable, as it may cost up to 10 times as much as the control. Core Ideas: Poor orchardgrass stand productivity can be improved by interseeding cool‐season annual grasses. Cool‐season annual grasses treated with burndown improved forage productivity during spring. Spring seeding of cool‐season annual grasses into orchardgrass may not be economically viable.