Abstract: The grass is a very important terrestrial ecosystem,stores a large amount of soil carbon,and occupies an important position in the global carbon cycle.The planting of artificial grassland is the development of intensive grassland animal husbandry,the implementation of the important measures for the sustainable development of ecology.This study measured the forage grass yield,competitive capacity,forage grass quality of legume and grass in monoculture and mixed sowing,respectively,to determine the effects of different sowing methods on forage growth in Maodeng Pasture of Xilinhot,Inner Mongolia.The results show that forage grass yield in legume-grass mixture increased significantly compared with that in monoculture,especially the forage grass yield in the second mixed sowing year was higher than that in the first mixed sowing year.When the ratio of grass to legume is 2∶1,inter-species competition lowered to some extent and the relative yield total (RYT) was larger than 1,showing that legume-grass mixture benefitted both legume and grass and enhanced the likelihood of coexistence.Forage grass quality in mixture was significantly improved with increasing in the content of crude protein,decreasing in the content of cellulose and no significant difference in the content of lignin.We conclude that legume-grass mixture sowing is a good choice to build artificial grassland due to its high stability,yield and quality so that it can be popularized extensively.

Key words: artificial grassland, seeding method, forage grass yield, nutrient content, forage grass quality