Journal of Sustainable Agriculture, 35:726–744, 2011 Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 1044-0046 print/1540-7578 online DOI: 10.1080/10440046.2011.606490 Oat and Oat-Vetch as Rainfed Fodder-Cover Crops in Semiarid Environments: Effects of Fertilization and Harvest Time on Forage Yield and Quality M. E. RAMOS, 1 M. A. ALTIERI, 2 P. A. GARCIA, 3 and A. B. ROBLES 1 1 Estacíon Experimental del Zaidín (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas), Granada, Spain 2 Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, USA 3 Departamento de Estadística e Investigacíon Operativa Facultad de Ciencas, Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain We evaluate the forage yield and quality, species composition, and carrying capacity of oats and oat-vetch as fodder-cover crops, grown in almond orchards, under mineral or organic fertil- izer and three harvesting regimes (“grazing,” “hay,” and “grain plus straw”). Also, we show preliminary results of almond yield. Differences in yield due to mineral and organic fertilization were only 9%. The carrying capacity was similar for all treatments. The almond yield was greater when the cover crop was removed early as “grazing.” Therefore, oats and oat-vetch could be used as cover crops in almond orchards if removed early by livestock grazing. KEYWORDS almond orchard, carrying capacity, cereals, legumes, Mediterranean We thank the staff of the Patronato Rodríguez Penalva (Diputación de Granada) for lending us the experimental plots and for helping in the field work; Alicia Ortigosa for the chemical analysis of the forage; Jabier Ruiz Mirazo for his assistance in laboratory; and Dr. José Luis González Rebollar for his supervision. Isabel Sánchez Prior helped with the statistical analysis. This study was funded by Consejería de Innovación, Ciencia y Empresa (IFAPA) and Consejería de Agricultura y Pesca (DAP) (Junta de Andalucía), and a FPU-MECD grant to M. E. Ramos. Address correspondence to M. E. Ramos, Estación Experimental del Zaidín, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas; C/ Profesor Albareda, 1 E-18008 Granada, Spain. E-mail: eugenia.ramos@eez.csic.es 726