Effect of Autumn Cutting Date on Regrowth, Turning Green, Yield and Quality of Leymus chinensis Grassland in Songnen Plain, Northeast China

A field study was carried out to quantify the effects of different cutting time on Leymus chinensis population and community characteristic in Songnen grassland of northeast China from August, 2006 to August, 2007. The treatment interval was ten days with the remaining stubble height of 5 cm from 15th August to 4th October in 2006. Results showed that the L. chinensis made up about 90% of the dry matter of aboveground biomass, and there were about ten species in the L. chinensis community in the 1 m × 1 m plot. The L. chinensis and Kalimeris integrifolia regrew rapidly after autumn cutting in 2016. In the second year, the coefficients of the community similarity were high between the different cutting time treatments. The density, height, aboveground biomass, stem/leaf ratio, and crude protein of L. chinensis were not significant at the turning green stage and harvesting stage, the companion species of L. chinensis community contained higher crude protein, but the crude protein of the plant community were not significant. Thus, considering the weather factor for haymaking, the harvest dates should be concentrated from the middle ten days of August to the first ten days in September.