Increased supply of organically produced forage seed of grasses and clovers in Norway (økofrø) 202081

The project has been focusing on the three three major challenges in organic seed production (1) improved establishment / weed control, (2) adequate nutrient supply and (3) better seed harvest methods. When establishing seed crops (1), timothy, meadow fescue and red clover are normally undersown in spring wheat or barley as a cover crop. The traditional method has been either to broadcast the forage seed on the surface with special sowing equipment on the cover crop sowing machine, and to plant the cov er crop and seed crop in crossed rows at 12 cm row distance. Another alternative, which has not earlier been evaluated in Norway, is to plant the seed crop and cover crop in every second row in one sowing operation. In field trials at Bioforsk Landvik and Vestfold, these three sowing methods was combined with three sowing rates (3, 6 and 9 kg/ha in red clover and 5, 10 and 15 kg/ha in timothy and meadow fescue) during 2010-2013. Plots sown with seed crop and cover crop in every second row produced more vi gorous plants and higher seed yield, but were not more competitive against weeds, compared to similar plots sown with the two other methods. On average for sowing rates and all trials, seed yield was 5-6 % higher in timothy, 19-25 % higher in meadow fescu e and 19-25 % higher in red clover when seed crop and cover crop was sown in every second row than with the two other establishing methods. Thus, such a establishing methods seems promising for producing vigourous plants with a high seed yield potential. On average for sowing methods and all trails, seed yield of timothy, meadow fescue and red clover was reduced by 5-9 %, 4-8 % and 4-14 %, respectively, when seeding rate was increased from the lowest to the two highest seeding rates. Increasing seeding ra te did not have any significant positive impact on weed control. In order to investigate suitable types of organic fertilizers, both pot trial in greenhouse (screening) and field trials were carried out during the project period. In the screening, bes t response out of twelve different organic fertilizers on vegetative tiller production, N uptake and dry matter production of pot-grown plants of meadow fescue was found in pots fertilized with biorest (organic waste product from the biogas industry and c attle manure (slurry). In addition to biorest and cattle slurry, pelletized meat and bone meal and two pelletized poultry fertilizers (from Binadan and 'Grønn gjødsel') was selected for further testing in seed production field trials. Applied in autumn, t he fast responding types as biorest, cattle slurry (fluids) produced more vegetative tillers by the end of the growing season than the pelletized fertilizers. In timothy, the highest seed yield was harvested on plots autumn fertilized with biorest, while only small and insignificant differences in seed yield was found in meadow fescue between the various fertilizers. In spring, the application rate was 50 or 80 kg N/ha for all fertilizers. On average for three trials of both timothy and meadow fescue, plo ts fertilized with the highest rate (80 kg N/ha) of cattle slurry and biorest produced the highest seed yield in the two species, respectively. All in all, fluid fertilizers as biorest and cattle slurry was taken rapidly up by plants and was a more stabl e supplier of nutrients, especially during dry periods where the pelletized fertilizers did not decompose, resulting in minor release of nutrients. In the harvesting trials (3), swathing at different dates before harvest was evaluated as an alternativ e to direct harvesting, which is the standard harvesting method. The hypothesis was that drying of the swathed plant material in windrows would lead to earlier harvest and improved seed quality compared to plots being directly harvested later in autumn. However, the weather during the swathing and harvest period was too unstable, with several rain showers, for the swathed plant material to dry up and be harvested earlier than plots being directly harvested. Thus, the results did not support swathing befo re harvest as an alternative to direct harvesting in the organic red clover seed production.

Grassland based milk- and meat production are the most important part of Norwegian organic farming. According to international rules, the seed used to establish these grassland areas has to be produced organically. However, todays supply of forage seed is less than 50 per cent of the requirement. The objective of the present project proposal is to secure the seed supply for organic forage production of the main species timothy, meadow fescue and red clover. This will be accomplished by (1) improving the e stablishment methods, especially by increasing the competitiveness of the seed crops against weeds; (2) finding suitable organic fertilizer for adequate nitrogen supply in autumn and spring in relation to flower induction and seed crop growth development ; and (3) finding alternative methods for harvesting of red clover seed. The project will stimulate to more organic seed production in Norway, minimizing the gap between offer and demand and securing that seed supply is not limiting to the goal of 15% org anic farming by 2015. The project will be carried out in close collaboration with Norwegian seed companies and seed growers and with the Swedish campaign 'ECOVALLFRÖ' whose leader has been connected to the project as external expert. The total four-year b udget is 2.360 mill. NKr. of which 2.0 mill. NKr. is requested from the Research Council.