The objective of the study was to assess the effect of catch crops on the yield and energetic efficiency of the main cereal crop grown under monoculture. The study was carried out in the years 2006-2008 at Uhrusk experiment farm. The trial was localized on a mixed rendzina soil, of medium depth, developed from chalk limestone. The experiment included spring cereals such as wheat, barley and oats as well as stubble catch crops: non-catch crop control, white mustard, blue phacelia, winter oilseed rape and a legume mixture - narrow-leaved lupin+field peas. The highest yield increase over the non-catch crop control (9.4%) was found when phacelia was grown as a catch crop after wheat. The lowest yield increment occurred in barley grown after legumes (ca. 8%) and in oats gown after phacelia and oilseed rape (ca. 7%). The energetic efficiency of cereal production was more related to the main cereal crop than to the catch crop. The production of barley and oats had a higher energetic efficiency (4.71 and 4.65, respectively) than that of wheat (3.84). The use of catch crops lowered but to a small degree the energetic efficiency of spring cereal production.
