Effect of sward type, cutting frequency and fertilizer-n application on pasture establishment, growth and yield in guinea grass-verano stylo pastures.

Abstract

This experiment was a 3 x 3 x 2 factorial laid out in a randomized complete block design and was replicated three times. Treatments comprised three sward types (pure grass, pure legume and grass/legume mixed swards), three cutting regimes (4 weeks, 8 weeks and 12 weeks) and two nitrogen fertilizer rates (0 and 300 kg N ha-1). Increasing the interval between harvests increased the number of branches per plant, number of leaves per legume plant, and heights of grass and legume species. The application of N increased heights of grass and legume plants, with no effect on the number of leaves per plant and number of branches per legume plant. Fertilizer effects on height of grass and legume plants were generally, not significant during the later periods of 2006 and 2007. There were significant reductions in the height, number of nodules per plant, length of longest root per plant, number of branches per plant, number of leaves per plant, and dry matter yields of leaf, stem and root fractions per verano stylo plant in the grass-legume mixed swards when compared with the pure legume swards.