RESEARCH ARTICLE
Forage Yield and Quality of Chicory, Birdsfoot Trefoil, and Alfalfa During the Establishment Year
Grant Chapman1, Edward Bork1, Noble Donkor2, *, Robert Hudson3
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2008Volume: 2
First Page: 68
Last Page: 74
Publisher ID: TOASJ-2-68
DOI: 10.2174/1874331500802010068
Article History:
Received Date: 04/07/2008Revision Received Date: 03/09/2008
Acceptance Date: 04/09/2008
Electronic publication date: 22/9/2008
Collection year: 2008
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
As part of a study to evaluate alternative forages for farmed deer, we compared forage yields and quality of birdsfoot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus) and forage chicory (Cichorium intybus) with that of alfalfa (Medicago sativa) in north central Alberta, Canada. Despite similar plant densities among the three species, the foliar cover of chicory averaged 76%, 20% greater than alfalfa and 50% greater than trefoil. Alfalfa had higher plant height, dry matter yields, and crude protein concentrations compared to chicory and trefoil, leading to crude protein yields nearly double that of the other forages. Alfalfa also had superior over-winter persistence. Birdsfoot trefoil stands exhibited poor competitiveness in the year of establishment, as demonstrated by high weed and volunteer clover biomass. Chicory had lower neutral detergent fiber concentrations compared to the other forages, leading to a favorable neutral detergent soluble value of 590 g kg-1 DM, 6% greater than that of trefoil. In contrast, tannin concentrations were greatest in trefoil (nearly 60 g kg-1 DM), well above those in the other forages (<20 g kg-1 DM). These results highlight the potential of chicory for forage production, as well as the importance of mixing alfalfa with alternative forages to optimize forage yield and quality.
