Effects of fertilizer application to grasslands in Greece

Grasslands in Greece are composed of a large variety of plant species, but they have relatively low productivity due to their misuse by domestic animals for thousands of years, and also to soil and climatic factors. Fertilizer application can improve productivity by affecting herbage yield, botanical composition, earliness of spring growth and quality. The application of N and P generally alters species composition and increases dry matter and crude protein yields, while the addition of K is often not effective. Also, NP fertilizer increases the in vitro digestibility while N often decreases P, Ca, Mg and Zn contents of herbage. It appears that Greek grasslands cannot utilize as much N as their temperate counterparts and that their soils are usually deficient in P. This indicates that NP fertilizer is necessary to secure increased yields with P being important in achieving a balanced grass‐legume composition in the plant cover.