Plant Soil Environ., 2018, 64(2):76-81 | DOI: 10.17221/732/2017-PSE

The use of compressed height to estimate the yield of a differently fertilized meadowOriginal Paper

Ondřej CUDLÍN*,1,3, Josef HAKL2, Michal HEJCMAN3, Pavel CUDLÍN1
1 Global Change Research Institute, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, České Budějovice, Czech Republic
2 Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
3 Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Prague, Czech Republic

Monitoring of grassland dry matter yield (DMY) is important for the economy and ecosystem management, but it is a time-consuming process. Calculating the correlation between compressed height (CH) and DMY is a faster way to estimate DMY. The aim of our study was to use CH in order to predict DMY for a meadow with different fertilization management and plant species composition. Four fertilization treatments and one unfertilized control were established in a mesophilic meadow in the Czech Republic. Using a rising plate meter (RPM), CH was measured before the first and second cuts. In addition, the cover of individual vascular plant species was estimated. Significant correlations between CH and DMY were ranging from 0.41 to 0.79 for treatments without nitrogen fertilization in the first and second cuts; for treatments with nitrogen fertilization there was a significant correlation only in the second cut. According to our results, the RPM method seems to be suitable for a rough DMY estimate for meadows with coverage of about 60% grasses, 10% legumes and 30% forbs. However, considerable changes in the cover of tall forbs (e.g. Urtica dioica L.) or tall grasses (e.g. Dactylis glomerata L.) could be the main sources of DMY estimation inaccuracy.

Keywords: biomass production; forage; pasture; nutrient; plant diversity

Published: February 28, 2018  Show citation

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CUDLÍN O, HAKL J, HEJCMAN M, CUDLÍN P. The use of compressed height to estimate the yield of a differently fertilized meadow. Plant Soil Environ. 2018;64(2):76-81. doi: 10.17221/732/2017-PSE.
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