Technical and Economic Comparison of Pure and Mixed Cultivation of Vetch and Fodder Peas in Dryland Conditions

One of the limitations in Iran's animal husbandry industry is the supply of fodder needed by animals. Although the plants of the cereal family are widely used as fodder due to their low cost and high dry matter, they have low quality. One of the solutions is to cultivate a mixture of cereals with plants of the legume family, because although legumes have the same low dry matter performance, they have a higher quality of fodder than cereals due to their high crude protein content. Therefore, they compensate for the lack of protein in the livestock diet. In mixed cultivation, cereal and leguminous plants, due to their morphological and physiological differences, make optimal use of environmental resources and as a result, cause a small increase in fodder production. In this research, the intercropping of two cultivars of Golshan vetch and White flower vetch in cold climate along with a Pioneer forage pea cultivar with barley and triticale in a ratio of 50:50 was compared in the fields of Bonab (County) farmers. Cultivation was carried out in the fall in the first week of November 2019 without tillage with direct seeding along with the application of nitrogen fertilizers from the source of urea and phosphorus from the source of superphosphate, according to the fertilizer needs of the region (with the fertilizer formula of N30:P20 in place. Therefore, the seven different treatments in this experiment included pure culture of native khalar, pure culture of Golshan and white flower vetch, pure culture of barley, pure culture of triticale, mixed culture of barley with vetiver, mixed culture of triticale with vetiver and mixed culture of triticale with Pioneer fodder peas at a ratio of 50:50. According to the study results, the average yield in the total mixed cultivation treatments was higher than pure cultivation. The highest yield of forage was obtained from the mixture of triticale and fodder peas in the full ripening stage. Also, the highest yield was related to the mixture of vetch with barley and the lowest fodder production belonged to the mixture of Golshan and white flower vetch. The results of the economic estimation using the partial budgeting method showed that the mixed cultivation of barley + vetiver was the most economic treatment, followed by the mixed cultivation of triticale + pioneer fodder pea. Considering the nutritional value of fodder according to the percentage of protein in different grains and legumes, mixed cultivation of vetiver with barley can increase the yield of fodder and increase income.