Evaluation of associations of cereal and legumes to optimize the protein of the winter forage of dairy cattle farms of organic production.

The general objective of this proposal is to evaluate associated cereal and legume crops sown as winter fodder with the potential to optimize the production of organic protein on agricultural and livestock farms in the Mediterranean agroclimatic conditions of the interior and pre-coastal of Girona. For this purpose, an experimental field trial will be established, from autumn 2021 to spring 2022, consisting of planting different winter forage alternatives based on a mixture of cereal and legume: five species of legumes (purple clover, persa clover, vetch, pea and fava bean) and five cereals (oats, barley, hybrid barley and two varieties of wheat differentiated in the productive potential and the phenological cycle) in cereal-legume associations and in pure cultivation, with a single cut and two dates of use. The project aims to identify the combinations of species that best contribute to the food autonomy of organic cattle farms and explore whether they contribute to the availability of N in maize thanks to the ability of legumes to fix atmospheric N2.