The influence of sowing date, harvest date and seed rate on the yield of forage peas

A series of preliminary trials is described to assess the potential and some of the cultural requirements of new cultivars of forage peas grown as pure stands in the west of Scotland. Optimum sowing date was late March for harvesting 15 weeks later to leave sufficient of the growing season for a catch crop or the establishment of a grass sward. Yield of dry matter (DM) at harvest was approximately 6 t ha^-1 but DM concentration varied greatly with season. The digestibility of the organic matter was of the order of 0·700 and the crude protein concentration in the DM 170 g kg^-1. DM yield increased with increasing seed rate up to 200 kg ha^-1 the maximum rate tested.