GrassRotate

Background

Grassland mixtures with a balanced level of grass, legumes, and herbs can significantly contribute to a more sustainable crop production compared to traditional clover-grass mixtures, including increased carbon storage in the soil, enhanced yield and yield stability, and reduced weed shares. Incorporating herbs is expected  to enhance nitrogen use efficiency, resulting in decreased leaching and a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. These benefits will make the existing organic agricultural production less reliant on manure and decrease weed pressure in crops, thereby potentially increasing the incentive to transition from conventional to organic farming.

The Purpose of GrassRotate

GrassRotate aims to utilize an existing long-term organic cattle farming crop rotation experiment to determine optimal cultivation practices. The focus will be on increasing yield and feed quality, as well as the  legacy effects of clover-grass and diverse grassland mixtures with herbs. Additionally, the project will conduct detailed investigations into changes in soil carbon storage both above and below ground, including exploring the potential for mitigating climate change through the use of more species-rich grassland mixtures and increasing the proportion of grass in the rotation. As a supplement to this, herb-rich mixtures will be implemented on selected cattle farms, and an assessment of the alternative grassland mixtures' economic and environmental potential will be conducted from a crop rotation and farm perspective.

Project Step by Step

• Investigate the agronomic performance of the traditional clover-grass mixture compared to the inclusion of herbs at different nitrogen inputs.
• Determine the effect of grassland mixtures with herbs on root biomass and carbon storage.
• Identify relationships between yield parameters and the belowground species composition.
• Testing of promising grassland mixtures identified in field trials at farm level.

Project period

2023-2026