THE ROLE OF GRASS MIXTURES IN IMPROVING THE STRUCTURE OF VEGETATION COVER IN PASTURE

Abstract

The article presents the results of a study conducted to study the productivity of poly-species agrophytocenoses in the Kostanay region. The method of conducting field experiments is described, including the use of cereal-bean grass mixtures to increase pasture productivity. Meteorological data for the growing season of 2024, including average monthly precipitation and air temperature, are presented.

As part of the work, agrochemical analyses of soils were carried out, according to which the humus content in the control (degraded) areas was 3.65%. Measurements of the density of growth and height of the herbage of cereal and legume grass mixtures, as well as accounting for productivity by mowing, weighing and disassembling grasses by species composition, were performed. The air-dried samples were used to determine the yield. The photosynthetic activity of plants was assessed by an express method based on the chlorophyll content using the N-tester SPAD 502 Plus Chlorophyll Meter, designed for field diagnostics of the level of nitrogen nutrition of plants.

As a result of the study, it turned out that the highest yield was demonstrated by a grain and legume grass mixture, including wheat grass, goat grass and boneless rump – 45,2 hundredweight per hectare of green mass and 31,9 hundredweight of dry matter. It was found that the highest values of chlorophyll content (in the range of 35-42 SPAD units) were observed in cereal components of grass mixtures, which also correlated with their high productivity.