Browsing by Subject "grass roller"

Leys productivity decreases over time in Finland. After three years the yield is usually low. Most of the finnish leys are renovated less than five years old. Leys suffer from winter, foraging and grazing and they become thinner. Grass height and density correlate relatively well to the yield. Leys which are thinned out can be fixed with overseeding. The object of this study was to find out how grass overseeding affects to the growth and assess how profitable it is with grass roller. One year field experiment was made. It’s goal was to test the features of the Kivi-Pekka grass roller. Effects to the growth were also studied but the significance was considered low because of the one year test. Overseeding field experiment was made in 3, 5 and 8 years old leys. Yield was cut two times. The profitability of the grass roller was estimated with calculations. Yields can be maintained with overseeding and new plants can be added to the growth. Overseeding succeed better with clover than grasses referring to the literature. The density of old growth and moisture are main features which affect to succes in overseeding. Seeds need warmth, space for growing, moisture and good soil contact to germinate properly. There were only minor differences between the overseeding techniques and results. Surface seeding without harrowing or rolling wasn’t very effective. There were no significant differences between the yields of different treatments in field experiment. Newly sown seeds probably lost in growth competition. Yield value, renovating costs and seed cost had major effect to the profitability of overseeding. According to the calculations grass rollers profitability increased when overseeded area increased and the age of leys become longer.