A preliminary study of the agronomic factors affecting the yield of extractable leaf protein

Abstract Several species have been selected for their ability to synthesise protein rapidly. The main factors influencing their protein production were nitrogenous fertiliser, age at harvest, seed rate and climate. Some of the best species were grown either alone or in sequence at optimum rates of seed and N, and harvested to make maximum use of the growing season. The annual yields of extracted protein reached 2000 kg/ha in a good year with winter wheat followed by two crops of mustard or fodder radish. The grasses have not extracted well in the past; however, with recent improvements in agronomy and machinery, cocksfoot yielded 1670 kg/ha in a very dry year and can be expected to yield 2000 kg/ha regularly in wetter parts of the British Isles. It is hoped that similar knowledge will lead to much higher yields in the wet tropics.