Brown, Hamish2025-01-212025-01-211999https://hdl.handle.net/10182/17992The climate in Canterbury is dominated by hot, dry North-west weather conditions during the summer. The New Zealand standard ryegrass/white clover pasture is unsuitable for high animal production in these conditions because it suffers from low production and persistence. There is a need for alternative species that can increase the productivity of dryland areas and improve the efficiency of water use. To address these problems an experiment was established at Lincoln University in 1996. Dry matter (DM) production and water use of three high quality deep rooted perennial species, red clover (Trifolium pratense L.), chicory (Cichorium intybus L.) and lucerne (Medicago sativa L.), were measured under dryland and irrigated situations. Results from the third year of the experiment are presented and compared with the previous seasons to determine the potential of these species for use in Canterbury. Measurements were made over seven rotations from the 16 August 1998 - 24 June 1999. Under dryland conditions lucerne had greater annual dry DM production (21 t ha⁻¹ ) than red clover (15 t ha⁻¹) and chicory (13 t ha⁻¹ ). All species used 500 mm of water through the season and extracted water to about 2 m depth, thus lucerne had the highest water use efficiency (WUE). Similar yields were obtained in irrigated treatments, but 670 mm of water was used. Consequently the WUE was lower in irrigated conditions compared with dryland for all species. Differences in DM production came from greater lucerne production in the first spring rotation and the last three autumn rotations. There was no difference in DM production between species during the middle three rotations in late spring and summer. Root diseases in red clover and chicory contributed to their reduced production at the end of the third year. From this it was concluded that lucerne had greater potential than red clover or chicory for use in dryland or irrigated conditions in Canterbury.https://researcharchive.lincoln.ac.nz/pages/rightsalfalfachicorydry matter productiondrylandirrigationlucerneMedicago sativa L.radiation use efficiencyred cloverTrifolium pratense L.soil variabilitywater extraction patternwater use efficiencyDissertationDigital thesis can be viewed by current staff and students of Lincoln University only. If you are the author of this item, please contact us if you wish to discuss making the full text publicly available.ANZSRC::300406 Crop and pasture improvement (incl. selection and breeding)ANZSRC::300201 Agricultural hydrology