Yield and Quality Response of Ryegrass, Egyptian Clover and Their Mixtures to Different Sources of Fertilizers

Abstract

Two field experiments were conducted during two successive winter seasons of 2008/2009 and 2009/2010 to investigate the potentialities of mixing Egyptian clover with ryegrass under bio, organic and mineral fertilization treatments and their combination to increase forage yield and quality grown under sandy soil conditions. The experiment included the combination of five mixing ratios (Egyptian clover alone, ryegrass alone, 75% Egyptian clover: 25% ryegrass, 50% Egyptian clover: 50% ryegrass and 25% Egyptian clover: 75% ryegrass) and eight fertilizer sources, which include control, organic fertilization, bio fertilization, chemical fertilizer, organic + bio fertilizer, organic + chemical fertilizer, bio + chemical fertilizer and combination of organic and chemical and bio fertilizers. The obtained results indicate the superiority of 75% E. clover: 25% ryegrass mixture fertilizedby Bio + O + N in fresh and dry forage production. On the other hand, it reported the lowest dry weight of weeds g/m 2 . Chemical analysis of forage plants showed that the mixture of 75% E. clover: 25% ryegrass surpassed that of other treatments yield for crude protein, ether extract and ash. The results also revealed that the highest record of DCP, crude fiber and TDNY was obtained by forage mixture of 75% E. clover: 25% ryegrass fertilized with Bio + O + N. Such higher yield of these characters hassecured a balanced ratio which is really needed for ruminants ration.