Abstract: A field experiment was conducted to study the effects of winter wheat/forage catch crop rotation systems on dry matter production and water use. This experiment was conducted at the Qingyang Experimental Station of Lanzhou University, which is located in the central part of the Loess Plateau. Four crop rotation systems were tested: fallow/winter wheat (Triticum aestivum)/vetch (Vicia sativa)/winter wheat (F-W-V-W); fallow/winter wheat/rape (Brassica campestris)/winter wheat (F-W-R-W); rape/winter wheat/vetch/winter wheat (R-W-V-W); and rape/winter wheat/rape/winter wheat (R-W-R-W). The results showed that the system productivity of R-W was 27% higher than that of F-W. Compared with F-W, R-W showed 1100 kg/ha greater crude protein yield, but there was no significant difference in the yield of winter wheat stubble. Among the four cropping systems, the R-W-R-W rotation system showed the highest dry matter production, crude protein yield, water use efficiency, and protein water use efficiency [30.68 t/ha, 3.25 t/ha, 7.80 kg/(mm·ha), and 0.92 kg/(mm·ha), respectively]. The yield and water consumption of rape were higher than those of vetch, indicating that precipitation after the winter wheat crop was used more efficiently by rape. However, the protein content of vetch was 22.4% higher than that of rape. This result highlighted the importance of evaluating the relationship between dry matter production and crude protein yield to judge the benefits of different rotation systems.