Single-cut red clover combined with late timothy may be valuable in short-term rotations

Late-maturing cultivars of red clover (Trifolium pratense L.) and timothy ( Phleum pratense L.) may be grown in short-term rotations with other crops a nd harvested for hay and silage. Harvesting forage in mid-summer is often a dvantageous for field curing, but the quality of mature forage may be low. We studied how harvests at different developmental stages affected yield, c omposition of herbage, and species persistence. The late-maturing single-cu t red clover cultivar Altaswede and late timothy cultivar Farol were grown alone and in combination with and without applied N. Total forage, and red clover and timothy dry matter yields, increased between the first (27 June) and third (11 July) dates of harvest. Timothy grown alone or combined with red clover and fertilized with N produced greater forage yields than red c lover alone or red clover + timothy without applied N. The in vitro digesti bility of dry matter declined from 670 to 625 g kg(-1) and crude protein fr om 134 to 109 g kg(-1) between 27 June and 11 July. Water soluble carbohydr ates in forage were low (36-66 g kg(-1)) in cuts 1 and 2. Macronutrient and micronutrient concentrations were generally highest at the first date of h arvest on 27 June. Nutrient concentrations in cut 2 were similar for the th ree harvest schedules. We conclude that growing late-maturing single-cut re d clover combined with late timothy produced high yields with good nutritio nal quality even at advanced stages of maturity. Single-cut red clover pers isted for the first production year making this combination suited for shor t-term rotations that involve late harvesting of the primary growth.