Branko Ćupina

Achievements in breeding autumn-sown annual legumes for temperate regions with emphasis on the continental Balkans

Annual legumes represent one of the basic elements of the agriculture of Serbia. Until recently, only annual forage legumes such as pea or vetches were autumn-sown in Serbia and other neighbouring regions of the continental Balkan Peninsula. During the last decade, the first crucial steps in the development of autumn-sown grain legumes were made, with emphasis on dry pea, faba bean and dual-purpose vetches. The winter forage pea cultivars developed in Serbia are generally characterised by prominent winter hardiness and a rather extended growing season, usually beginning with sowing in early October and ending either by cutting for forage production in late May or harvesting seeds in mid-July. One of the strategic advantages of recently released cultivars of autumn-sown dry pea is their significantly improved earliness. The Serbian winter dry pea cultivar Mraz, newly registered in Serbia and developed from hybrids between French and Serbian autumn-hardy materials, is regularly at least a week earlier than winter barley, so many farmers will not have to choose between pea and cereals due to limited harvesting resources. The initial material for pre-breeding autumn-sown faba bean in the conditions of Serbia consisted of both collected local landraces of Serbia and populations from France and Germany. The preliminary results of their agronomic performance showed that they have a great potential for high grain yield in the conditions of Serbia. Promising results in breeding winter hardy cultivars were achieved with several vetch species, as well as with lentil and grass pea, and will be continued with more species including Medicago truncatula.

Towards the re-introduction of grass pea (Lathyrus sativus) in the West Balkan Countries: the case of Serbia and Srpska (Bosnia and Herzegovina).

Vetchlings (Lathyrus spp.) are widely distributed in both Serbia and Srpska, and represent a valuable component of local floras all over the Balkan Peninsula. Despite this and the existence of a traditional Serbian name for grass pea (Lathyrus sativus L.), sastrica, and a pan-Slavic name for all vetchlings, grahor, today they are almost forgotten crops. The joint action of the Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops and the Faculty of Agriculture is aimed at re-introducing grass pea and other vetchlings as multifunctional crops. Within the legume collection in the Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops, a small Lathyrus spp. collection, including about 100 accessions of 16 species, most of them being grass pea, was established in 2002. The landraces of grass pea were collected in several regions of Serbia and Srpska, where they are used for human consumption. Grass pea is commonly used boiled and along with other pulses, with no reports on lathyrism among the local people. The first Serbian breeding programme in Novi Sad produced already two grass pea lines that were registered in November 2009 under the names of Studenica and Sitnica, developed from the crosses of Polish cultivars and local Serbian landraces.

Forage Legume Intercropping in Temperate Regions: Models and Ideotypes

This chapter shows that our models of intercropping do not increase the costs of sowing. The crude protein content in forage dry matter remains high, even with short growing seasons. The models fit easily into various cropping systems and do not require synthetic fertilisers or herbicide. Intercropping is one of the oldest agricultural practices worldwide. Intercropping is beneficial in many ways, encompassing better utilisation of soil resources such as water and nutrients, improved tolerance to abiotic and biotic stress such as low temperatures, drought, pests and diseases and environment-friendly services such as decreased demand for chemical weed control and mineral fertilisers. Despite its long tradition, intercropping offers constant challenges in examining diverse aspects of newly-designed crop associations. One of the most recent and thoroughly studied is intercropping annual temperate legumes with each other for forage production. We established four main principles for such intercropping: same time of sowing; similar growing habit; similar cutting time; and one component has good standing ability (supporting crop) and another is susceptible to lodging (supported crop). Here we review the basic agronomic performance of three main intercropping groups, namely (1) autumn- and spring-sown ‘tall’ cool season legumes; (2) autumn- and spring-sown ‘short’ cool season legumes; (3) early and late maturing warm-season annual forage legumes. Intercropping autumn-sown faba bean with autumn-sown common vetch had balanced total forage dry matter yield and Land Equivalent Ratio (LER) of 1.42. All combinations of autumn-sown and spring-sown intercrops of semi-leafless and normal-leafed peas resulted in LER values higher than 1. The intercrop of pigeon pea and lablab bean had LER values of 1.12 and 1.10. Majority of the intercrops are justified as economically reliable by Land Equivalent Ratio (LER) values.

Mutual Legume Intercropping for Forage Production in Temperate Regions

Carefully designed intercropping systems can have many advantages in comparison to monocropping such as increased forage yield, enhanced weed control, reduced soil erosion and, in the case of legumes, improved soil fertility due to their symbiosis with nitrogen-fixating bacteria. In addition the use of forage legumes is increasing for the rations of ruminants because legumes supply animal husbandry with protein-rich diets. Due to lower forage yield from perennial legumes in the first planting year and a critical standing ability of annual forage legumes, farmers tend to establish these crops with a companion crop. The first trials in Serbia studied the role an annual legume in the establishment of a perennial legume. Field pea cultivars with reduced plant height, semi-leafless leaf types and improved lodging tolerance were included together with a pure red clover stand and its mixture with oats as controls. When sown as the companion crop an annual forage legume can provide an economic yield during the perennial forage crop establishment. In average, field pea as a companion crop increases forage annual dry matter yield by 2.56 t ha − 1 and reduces weeds in red clover stand by 29%. Another group of trials involved mixtures of autumn-sown cool season, spring-sown cool season and warm season annual legumes for forage production. Here one plant had good and another poor standing ability and with concurring development stages and similar growth habit. There were economically justified intercrops with Land Equivalent Ratio (LER) values of forage dry matter yield higher than 1, such as winter faba bean with winter common vetch (1.42), spring faba bean with spring grass pea (1.44) and pigeon pea with lablab bean (1.12). The achieved results in the mutual legume intercropping research in Serbia encourage the similar research in the neighbouring West Balkan Countries and other European temperate regions.

Forage and Seed Yield Components in Four French Landraces of Grass Pea (Lathyrus sativus L.)

A small-plot trial was carried out in 2006, 2007 and 2008 at the Experimental Field of the Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops at Rimski Sancevi, including four grass pea local landraces from southern France, Le Cambou from Dordogne and Flechou, Parranquet and Bon Encontre from Lot-et-Garonne. Each trial was composed of two identical parts, one for forage and another for seed. The plants in the first part were cut at the stage of full flowering, while in the second part the plants were harvested at the stage of full maturity of seeds in the oldest pods. Main forage and seed yield components were evaluated. The landrace Bon Encontre had the highest forage yields, with 42.08 g plant−1 of green forage and 8.18 g plant−1 of forage dry matter, while the landrace Le Cambou had the lowest forage yields, with 22.82 g plant−1 of green forage and 4.51 g plant−1 of forage dry matter. However, Le Cambou had the greatest average values of number of fertile nodes (17.7 plant−1), number of pods (18.3 plant−1), number of seeds (36.9 plant−1) and seed yield (7.20 g plant−1). The landrace Bon Encontre was the most promising for the development of dual-purpose grass pea cultivars.

Performance of Forage Soya Bean (Glycine max) Cultivars in the Northern Balkans

Soya bean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) is the most important grain legume crop in many West Balkan Countries. A programme on the alternative uses of soya bean such as forage, biomass or green manure has been recently launched in the Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops, the Faculty of Agriculture in Novi Sad and the Maize Research Institute Zemun Polje in Belgrade. A small-plot trial has been carried out in Novi Sad and Zemun Polje during 2009 and 2010 with four US forage soya bean cultivars. In both years and at both locations, all four cultivars were sown in late April, with a target sowing density of 75 viable seeds m− 2, and cut in the stages of full flowering or first pods development, mostly in the second half of July. In a 2-year average, the cultivar Donegal had the highest yields of both green forage (63.9 t ha− 1) and forage dry matter (15.1 t ha− 1). In single years, the highest yields were recorded in the cultivar Donegal, in Novi Sad in 2010, with 82.4 t ha− 1 of green forage and 18.4 t ha− 1 of forage dry matter.

Potential of Legume–Brassica Intercrops for Forage Production and Green Manure: Encouragements from a Temperate Southeast European Environment

Legumes and brassicas have much in common: importance in agricultural history, rich biodiversity, numerous forms of use, high adaptability to diverse farming designs, and various non-food applications. Rare available resources demonstrate intercropping legumes and brassicas as beneficial to both, especially for the latter, profiting from better nitrogen nutrition. Our team aimed at designing a scheme of the intercrops of autumn- and spring-sown annual legumes with brassicas for ruminant feeding and green manure, and has carried out a set of field trials in a temperate Southeast European environment and during the past decade, aimed at assessing their potential for yields of forage dry matter and aboveground biomass nitrogen and their economic reliability via land equivalent ratio. This review provides a cross-view of the most important deliverables of our applied research, including eight annual legume crops and six brassica species, demonstrating that nearly all the intercrops were economically reliable, as well as that those involving hairy vetch, Hungarian vetch, Narbonne vetch and pea on one side, and fodder kale and rapeseed on the other, were most productive in both manners. Feeling encouraged that this pioneering study may stimulate similar analyses in other environments and that intercropping annual legume and brassicas may play a large-scale role in diverse cropping systems, our team is heading a detailed examination of various extended research.

Performance of legume–grass mixtures in the West Balkan region

ABSTRACT Three perennial legumes (alfalfa, red clover and birdsfoot trefoil) and four cool-season perennial grasses (orchardgrass, tall fescue, Italian ryegrass and red fescue) were grown in legume–grass combinations and in pure stands of individual species, at three locations in the West Balkan region (Novi Sad, Banja Luka and Pristina) in the period from 2012 to 2015. The study evaluated dry matter yield, legume–grass–weed proportion and forage quality. High annual forage yield of legume–grass mixtures can be obtained with proper selection of species and an appropriate legume–grass ratio. However, high and stable yield, particularly in the case of grasses, depends on the amount and schedule of precipitation as well as the cutting time. The mixtures and legume pure stands achieved better forage production both per cutting and on the annual basis and had better forage quality than grass pure stands.

Yield Dynamics and Quality in White Clover and Perennial Ryegrass in the First cut of the Establishment Year

A field trial was carried out in the Vojvodina province, Serbia, during 2009 and 2010 in rainfed conditions. The study assessed the dynamics of yield formation, changes in morphological characteristics, as well as the nutritive values of white clover and perennial ryegrass grown as monocultures. Five varieties of white clover (Chieftain, Susi, Aran, Avoca and Rivendale) and eight of perennial ryegrasses (Cashel, Shandon, Magician, Greengold, Glenstal, Millenium, Sarsfield and Glencar), developed at and provided by Teagasc, Ireland, have been used for this research. After four measurements a significant differences in examined parameters with white clover and perennial ryegrass varieties were registered. In all studied parameters the highest values were recorded in the fourth measurement. The stolon length ranged from 1.4 cm (Avoca) to 4.1 cm (Chieftain). Susi had the highest number of stolons (2.1), and Rivendale had the lowest (0.9) but also the highest number of leaves per stolon (3.7). The leaf length ranged from 6.1 cm (Avoca) to 19.3 cm (Aran). Concerning ryegrass, the number of lateral shoots ranged from 2.8 (Millenium) to 4.8 (Magician). The highest number of leaves per shoot was in Cashel (4.8), and the lowest was reported for Millenium and Greengold (3.3). The average shoot height to the first leaf varied between 3.2 cm (Glenstal) and 4.4 cm (Cashel). The highest yield of white clover was achieved by Rivendale (1.19 t ha− 1), while the highest yield of perennial ryegrass were recorded by Millennium (8.26 t ha− 1) and Magician (8.03 t ha− 1). The average crude protein content was higher in white clover (22.8 %) than in perennial ryegrass (12.8 %), while the crude fibre content of white clover and perennial ryegrass were 18.1 and 34.7 %, respectively. These parameters led to a lower digestibility in perennial ryegrass, reflected through the monitored parameters of NDF and ADF.

Agronomic characteristics related to grain yield and crude protein content in common vetch (Vicia sativa) accessions of diverse geographic origin

We analysed the grain yield and quality in common vetch accessions to assess their breeding potential. A small-plot trial was carried out in 2005 and 2006 at the experimental field of the Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops at Rimski Šančevi. 14 accessions, of diverse geographic origin and status, from the Novi Sad Vicia collection were tested. The highest grain yield was in accession VIC 006 (2205 kg ha−1), while the highest grain dry matter crude protein was in accession Topaze (329 g kg−1). Significant positive correlations were found between the time from sowing to harvest and grain dry matter crude protein content (rgxy = 0.754). A cluster analysis of the tested common vetch accessions showed four main groups that are assumed to correlate with geographic and biological origin. The variability measured offers a basis for developing novel common vetch cultivars that could increase the use of this crop among the farmers in Serbia and the Balkans.