Cultures fourragères en zones de grandes cultures et importance de l’eau

The importance of water for forage crops in major areas of production

Certain parts of the Swiss Plateau experience drought, which has a negative impact on forage-based farming systems. In this study, we experimentally examined the effect of summer water availability on forage production (e.g., yield, mineral content, digestibility) in short- and longterm grasslands. We used 2 water-availability treatments and 5 rotation types. Three of the rotations were solely composed of crops (maize-barley, lucerne-a ryegrass catch crop, and a longer rotation with various crops). The other two included the seeding of grass-clover mixtures, which were used more or less quickly. The rotations that included maize were more productive, but the rotations that included forage mixtures were morewater efficient (i.e., drip irrigation was activated only when soil water levels dropped below a certain threshold). However, regardless of water availability, grassland vegetation rapidly degraded. The supply of water has only a slight effect (dilution effect) on mineral contents and exports.