Teodor MARUȘCA 1*
1 Research and Development Institute for Grasslands, Brașov
*Corresponding author: maruscat@yahoo.com
Abstract
In an experience regarding the improvement of subalpine grasslands degraded by Nardus stricta located in the Bucegilor Plateau at 1800 m altitude, established in 1995, the long-term effect of the intervention on the natural grass carpet, overseeded and reseeded on unamended and calcium amended soil with a organic fertilization by grazing with sheep and cattle was studied. The study in the final phase, 2019-2023 after 24-28 years on average from the improvement options, highlighted the prolonged effect of calcium amendment to 2/3 of the hydrolytic acidity (Ah), by which the pastoral value increases by 5% and mass production green by 12% compared to the unamended variants. As for the grass carpet, the overseeded grassland is superior to the other two variants natural and reseeded. The effect of the improvement factors of these degraded grasslands is even better highlighted by the milk production, which reaches 4120 liters/ha in the oversown variants and 4150 liters/ha in the calcium-amended ones, respectively 2-5% higher than of the average of the control variants. Uniform organic fertilization by livestock paddocking strongly stimulated the participation of valuable species, such as Poa pratensis, Agrostis capillaris, Festuca nigrescens and Trifolium repens alongside Phleum pratense introduced by overseeding almost 30 years ago.
Keywords:
degraded mountain grasslands, improvement, pastoral value, green mass production, milk production