The development of a lucerne growth model : a dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Agricultural Science with Honours at Lincoln University

Abstract

Lucerne (Medicago sativa) is a pasture plant which has been grown for over 2000 years, but despite this fact surprisingly little is known about it's regrowth. In the seventies the popularity of luceme was extremely high particularly in New Zealand where it's extremely high summer growth rates persuaded many farmers to grow it. However it is an expensive species to establish.

The objective of this exercise is to produce a working model of lucerne growth and regrowth following defoliation by grazing for inclusion in an existing farm simulation model developed at Lincoln University (Finlayson et al,1990; Cacho and Bywater, 1991). The whole farm model once fully developed and evaluated will then be used to analyse forage production and feeding options for lucerne on New Zealand livestock farms.

The project is proposed to be carried out in two main parts : (i) Development of the model. (ii) Evaluation of various management procedures on the productivity and profitability of grazed luceme. This honours dissertation describes the first part of the project, that is the development of a luceme growth model.