– Dr. Chris D. Teutsch, Caroline Roper, and Brittany Hendrix, University of Kentucky Research and Education Center at Princeton

Figure 1. Pastures often contain rough and undulating terrain that makes maintaining a constant speed difficult.

Clover and other pasture legumes are important parts of sustainable grassland ecosystems. Legumes form a symbiotic relationship with Rhizobium bacteria. The Rhizobium bacteria fix nitrogen from the air into a plant available form and share it with the legume. In return the legume plant provides the bacteria with a place to live (nodules on the root system) and an energy source (sugar from photosynthesis). Nitrogen fixation is the second most important biochemical process on earth following photosynthesis. In addition to nitrogen fixation, legumes improve pasture quality and animal performance, and new research from our USDA Ag Research Unit in Lexington shows that a compound found in red clover may help to alleviate tall fescue toxicosis.

Frost seeding is the process of broadcasting clover or other legume seed onto existing pastures or hayfields in late winter and allowing freezing and thawing cycles to incorporate the seed into the soil (Teutsch et al., 2021). This method is most commonly used with Continue reading Variable Rate Frost Seeding Evaluated at UK Research and Education Center →