Effect of applied cultivation technology and environmental conditions on lucerne farm yield in the Central Europe

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of used technology and environmental condition on lucerne dry matter yield in the regional conditions. During a three year period (2011-2013), the investigation was based on management survey in 27 farms in the Czech Republic. Climate conditions significantly influenced yield in some interaction with soil where only combination of dry climate and less fertile soil conditions reduced forage yield. The single soil effect was not significant for forage yield. Applied technology was influenced by both environment and farm characteristic (such as farm size and cow's milk performance) which together significantly explained about 40% of variability of used technological properties. From all investigated technological properties, only cultivation of lucerne in mixture with grasses consistently increased forage yield therefore should be considered as important factor for modelling forage farm yield in the regional conditions.