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Acta Prataculturae Sinica ›› 2023, Vol. 32 ›› Issue (8): 115-128.DOI: 10.11686/cyxb2022451

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Effects of Onobrychis viciifolia and Bromus inermis grass mixture sowing and deficit irrigation on grassland water use and production performance

Yan-xia KANG(), Yuan-bo JIANG, Guang-ping QI(), Min-hua YIN, Yan-lin MA, Jing-hai WANG, Qiong JIA, Zhong-xia TANG, Ai-xia WANG   

  1. College of Water Resources and Hydropower Engineering,Gansu Agricultural University,Lanzhou 730070,China
  • Received:2022-11-14 Revised:2023-01-04 Online:2023-08-20 Published:2023-06-16
  • Contact: Guang-ping QI

Abstract:

Improving the productivity of artificially sown grasslands would relieve the pressure on natural grasslands, maintain the balance between regional forage supply and demand, and promote the healthy development of the local livestock industry. In this research, three artificial pasture sowing strategies were investigated: Bromus inermis (B), Onobrychis viciifolia (O), and sainfoin mixed with B. inermis (M), combined with four deficit irrigation treatments defined in terms of field capacity (θFC): Adequate irrigation (W0, 75%-85% θFC), mild water deficit (W1, 65%-75% θFC), moderate water deficit (W2, 55%-65% θFC), and severe water deficit (W3, 45%-55% θFC), were applied to investigate the influence on evapotranspiration, yield and quality, and water use efficiency in grassland. The entropy-weighted TOPSIS and entropy-weighted gray correlation methods were applied separately to provide a multivariate evaluation of the treatment effects. It was found that: 1) The evapotranspiration of the pastures ranked first cut>second cut>third cut, and decreased with increasing water deficit. The total evapotranspiration of M was 2.20% less than O and 6.21% greater than B; 2) Forage yield progressively decreased with increasing water deficit level, with no significant difference between W1 and W0. The total yield of M was 16.88% and 103.32% greater than O and B, respectively. The land equivalent ratio of M under the four irrigation treatments ranged from 1.38 to 1.65, and the yield proportion of sainfoin in M tended to decrease with increasing water deficit; 3) The mild water deficit improved forage quality and water use efficiency (WUE). The average crude protein content of M was 21.95% higher than B, and the average acid detergent fiber and neutral detergent fiber contents were, respectively, 1.40% and 3.64% lower than O. Compared with B and O, the average WUE, irrigation WUE, and crude protein water use efficiency increased by 91.17% and 19.07%, 83.17% and 24.47%, and 137.31% and 11.39%, respectively. In conclusion, from the multivariate evaluations, we concluded that M with W1 had the best overall production effect and can be recommended as a suitable planting management pattern for artificial grassland in the Gansu Hexi Corridor and similar ecological zones.

Key words: mixture sowing, deficit irrigation, yield and quality, water use, multivariate evaluation