Track 2‐6‐1: Developing Intensive and Extensive Forage Production with Environment Friendly Technologies and Adoption of Mechanization

Description

Berseem (Trifolium alexandrinum L.) is an important winter season fodder crop which occupies 2 million ha area in India (Kumar et al., 2013). Berseem is generally grown as pure stands or in mixture with annual grass species for feeding to the livestock. During severe winter month periods from December to February, berseem growth is slow due to low minimum air temperature or cold wave or frost occurrence which affects fodder availability to the livestock. To increase growth of berseem either in pure stand or in mixture, farmers generally use excessive urea which not only affects nodule development in roots of legumes but also pollute the environment (Dogra and Dudeja, 1993). Mixture of berseem clover with cereal crop enhances total dry matter yield, improves fodder quality, reduces fertilizer use and also increases subsequent crop yield (Ross et al., 2004). Farmer harvests 3-4 cuttings of berseem up to late mid April as fodder for livestock and then leave the crop for seed production. After 3-4 cuts as green fodder, berseem plants retain less foliage, poor flowering and finally low seed production (Kumar et al., 2013). It is very essential that berseem crop attains sufficient height and tillering capacity during initial cuts for obtaining high fodder yield during slow growth and later on crop left for seed production produces good quantity and quality of seed. So, keeping this objective in view, a field experiment was designed to know the effect of different chemical foliar sprays during early cuts on the growth of berseem grown as pure stand and in mixture against very low minimum air temperature/frost injury.

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Influence of Foliar Sprays of Thiourea and Sulfuric Acid against Frost Injury in Berseem

Berseem (Trifolium alexandrinum L.) is an important winter season fodder crop which occupies 2 million ha area in India (Kumar et al., 2013). Berseem is generally grown as pure stands or in mixture with annual grass species for feeding to the livestock. During severe winter month periods from December to February, berseem growth is slow due to low minimum air temperature or cold wave or frost occurrence which affects fodder availability to the livestock. To increase growth of berseem either in pure stand or in mixture, farmers generally use excessive urea which not only affects nodule development in roots of legumes but also pollute the environment (Dogra and Dudeja, 1993). Mixture of berseem clover with cereal crop enhances total dry matter yield, improves fodder quality, reduces fertilizer use and also increases subsequent crop yield (Ross et al., 2004). Farmer harvests 3-4 cuttings of berseem up to late mid April as fodder for livestock and then leave the crop for seed production. After 3-4 cuts as green fodder, berseem plants retain less foliage, poor flowering and finally low seed production (Kumar et al., 2013). It is very essential that berseem crop attains sufficient height and tillering capacity during initial cuts for obtaining high fodder yield during slow growth and later on crop left for seed production produces good quantity and quality of seed. So, keeping this objective in view, a field experiment was designed to know the effect of different chemical foliar sprays during early cuts on the growth of berseem grown as pure stand and in mixture against very low minimum air temperature/frost injury.