Abstract
Due to recurrent drought spells during summer, the establishment of leys based on lucerne (Medicago sativa), which is known to be tolerant against drought, is gaining increasing interest also in mountain areas. However, legumes are known to dry more slowly than grasses in the field and this can represent a critical point concerning the field drying of forage from the growth cycles towards the end of the growing season. To this aim, lucerne is ooen combined with grasses in seed mixtures. Data from a four-year field experiment in a mountain environment were used to investigate the effect of the yield proportion of grasses in the sward on the drying rate of the forage and on the crumbling losses during field curing. Monocultures of three lucerne cultivars, as well as three seed mixtures combining 40% seed weight of lucerne and 60% of different grasses were compared in swards harvested four times per year, of which selected growth cycles were investigated for botanical composition and dry matter content just aaer mowing and aaer field curing. e results show that the increase in dry matter content is related to the vapour deficit sum and that the yield proportion of grasses positively affected the drying process.