Forage Yield and Quality of Barley-Annual Medic Intercrops: Additive Series.

The on-farm production of protein is limited in most dairy farm operations especially in developing countries. To reduce the purchase of grain concentrates, it is desirable that more protein be produced on the farm which helps the dairy farming system to be more economically feasible. Cereal-legume intercropping is often considered to be a viable option to obtain forage with higher protein content. A two-year experiment was conducted at the experimental farm of University of Tehran during 2009 and 2010 growing seasons to determine whether barley-annual medic intercropping could enhance forage quality and produce sufficient amount of forage yield. A Randomized Complete Block Design with two additive intercropping systems (100B:20M) and (100B:40M) along with sole culture of barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) and annual medic (Medicago Scutellata L.) was studied. Land Equivalent Ratio was highest (1.07) when barley was intercropped with annual medic in 100B:40M intercropping ratio (pure stand of barley with 40% of annual medic pure stand) indicating that 7 percent more area would be required by a sole cropping system to yield similar to that of intercropping system. As expected, pure stand of annual medic had the highest CP content (310.7 g kg^-1 of DM) whereas Neutral Detergent Fiber (NDF) and Acid Detergent Fiber (ADF) were the highest in sole cropping of barley. The highest protein yield was obtained from 100B:40M intercrop. When both forage yield and quality was considered, the intercropping of barley and medic with 100B:40M ratio was superior and thus can be recommended to farmers as an alternative to the barley sole culture.