Nutritive value of field pea - oat and common vetch - oat bicrops

Abstract

Peas and vetches are the most important plant species for the production of forages, where they can be used as hay, haylage or silage. Due to their specific characteristics - tendency to lodging and high buffering capacity, they are usually grown in a mixture with small grains as support crops to prevent or reduce lodging, reduce buffering capacity, and at the same time obtain biomass suitable for the ensiling process. In pure crops, peas are most often used as green feeds or hay at the stage of first pod formation, while the best quality of vetch dry matter has been achieved by using it at the stage of full flowering or the beginning of first pod formation, when up to 25% of crude protein is obtained in the biomass of pure culture. The nutritive value of pure crops of peas, common vetch and oats, and their mixtures is presented as a function of the structure of the mixtures and the stage of use. Special attention is paid to the content of cell wall components and the dry matter digestibility of these feeds. Because of all of these mentioned above, it is particularly important to choose the right harvesting time to balance the yield and nutritional value of feeds used in bicrops.