Competition among pasture plants

Abstract

The results indicate that mixing of the cultivars would be advantageous as a function of both herbage yield and quality under the frequent lax cutting system, because the cutting did not markedly suppress Ruanui initially, allowing Ruanui to contribute substantially to the yields of the mixtures in the post-reproductive period when yields of Manawa were low. With infrequent hard cutting the yield contribution of Ruanui in mixture during the post-reproductive period was small and, because Manawa was unable to utilise the space made available by the death of Ruanui plants, depressed yields from mixing were observed. It is concluded that no advantage is gained by mixing Ruanui and Manawa where the management system in the first year tends to maximise the yield of Manawa.