With minimal soil tillage in mid-March, disking fields with LDG-10 harrow to a depth of 8–12 cm effectively destroyed emerging weeds and loosened the soil surface. In the favorable crop season of 2024, the highest dry hay yield (3.74 t/ha) obtained was under minimal tillage with simultaneous sowing of the early-maturing lucerne (Medicago sativa L.) cultivar Krasnovodopadskaya and safflower cultivar Irkas, exceeding pure lucerne by 1.68 t/ha (with a 1.8-fold increase). Compaction of lucerne with Sudan grass produced 2.84 t/ha (1.4 times higher than pure lucerne). In the extremely dry crop season of 2025, minimal soil cultivation in integration with sowing lucerne alongside the safflower cultivar Irkas resulted in a dry hay yield of 2.09 t/ha. A comparable hay yield of 2.04 t/ha resulted in the sowing of early-maturing lucerne cultivar Krasnovodopadskaya in combination with the Sudan grass cultivar Ailana-2017, which obtained a hay yield 2.2 times higher than the yield of pure lucerne. Under minimal soil cultivation with a single-species lucerne sowing, dry hay yield reached only 0.93 t/ha, remaining substantially lower than in the compacted cropping systems.
Lucerne (M. sativa L.), safflower, Sudan grass, minimal soil tillage, mineral fertilizers, insecticides, herbicides, dry hay yield
Under rainfed conditions, minimal soil tillage with direct sowing of lucerne (M. sativa L.) with simultaneous intercropping with safflower and Sudan grass significantly enhanced lucerne yield and produced a balanced fodder for livestock.