Establishment and growth of legumes in acid soils in the Falkland Islands
The main problems with sheep production in the Falkland Islands (FI) are mainly a function of the low quality of native pasture and are ; ( a) low ewe live weights reduce ovulation rate and subsequent ewe and lamb survival, ( b) lifetime performance of lambs ( low lambing percentage‐60％, high percentage mortality‐10‐20％ and low lamb birth weights x kg‐), (c) significant ewe live weight loss through winter and early spring, (d) Hogget live weight loss during winter and early spring increases death rates and productivity of those that survive.Forage crops can help improve this situation as they have better quality and, in some cases, quantity of production than native grasslands.Legumes are a good source of feed as they have high protein content, better yield in mixtures and fix Nitrogen.Also FI soils have a low pH, low Ca & P, synthetic fertilizer is expensive and is not compatible with organic production systems.One alternative is to use locally‐found Calcified Seaweed (CS‐ an acceptable organic material to raise the pH, Ca & other minerals).The overall aim of this work is to investigate the effect of acid soils on legume establishment, growth and nitrogen fixation in the FI.
Calcified seaweed clover lotus nitrogen fixation .
S.Radic J.H.McAdam
Queens University,Belfast,UK;Magallanes University,Punta Arenas,Chile Queens University,Belfast,UK;Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute,Bel fast,UK.
国际会议
呼和浩特
英文
2008-06-29（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）