Sheepgrass ( Leymus chinensis ): An Environmentally Friendly Native Grass for Animals by Gongshe Liu & Xiaoxia Li & Qingfen Zhang

Author:Gongshe Liu & Xiaoxia Li & Qingfen Zhang
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789811386336
Publisher: Springer Singapore

7.1 Fertilizer Requirements of Sheepgrass

The balance between herbage and livestock becomes an urgent concern because of soil depletion, inclement climate, and serious grassland degradation in grassland areas in the northern part of China, leading to a major maladjustment of ecosystem balance. Moreover, ecological environment is fragile in many aspects (Bao and Wang 2006), and people lack scientific management and understanding of natural grasslands. Its positive succession is disturbed in varying degrees, thus causing ecosystems in deserts to lose balance, undergo environmental degradation, and decrease in productivity (Rong et al. 2002). The degradation rate of sheepgrass natural grassland accelerates, and grassland area reduces in size because of drought and irrational exploitation (Liang et al. 2006).

The genetic diversity, salt tolerance, drought resistance, seed characteristics, and ecological adaptability of sheepgrass have been investigated (Wang 1997; Liu and Qi 2004; Li et al. 2003). The construction of artificial grasslands with high quality and high yield has also been widely explored. However, limited information on how to use limited water and fertilizer resources for the improvement of the productivity system of artificial grasslands is available, thereby impeding the development of artificial grasslands. The sexual reproduction ability of sheepgrass population is low under natural conditions. The respective heading, seed-setting, and germination rates of sheepgrass are 20–40%, 30–50%, and 20–30%, and this condition is known as three-low phenomenon (Yi et al. 2001). The soil fertility of grasslands should be improved, the propagation ability of herbage should be accelerated, and the population structure of herbage should be enhanced to restore and reconstruct degraded sheepgrass grasslands (Li et al. 2004a, b; Liu and Li 2011). Sheng et al. (2012) examined the categories of fertilizers to solve the existing problems on the production of sheepgrass. Fertilization can improve the nutrient composition of herbage to increase the yield and quality of herbages and promote the production of high-quality herbage in natural grasslands. Moreover, it also can inhibit the growth of inferior weeds and protect and increase soil fertility (Guo 1997; Fensham et al. 1999; Li et al. 2001; Li et al. 2004a, b).

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