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Annual and Perennial Forage Clovers for Arkansas

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Annual and Perennial Forage Clovers for Arkansas DIVISION OF AGRICULTURE R E S E A R C H & E X T E N S I O N University of Arkansas System Agriculture and Natural Resources FSA3137 Annual and Perennial Forage Clovers for Arkansas ruminants. Not all clovers cause bloat, Dirk Philipp Introduction and the problem is unlikely even Assistant Professor ­ Clovers and other legumes are with bloat­inducing types unless the Animal Science highly desirable species in pastures proportion of clover in the stand is greater than 50 percent. A few clovers and hay meadows. First, legumes synthesize estrogen­like compounds John Jennings are able to obtain nitrogen from air called phytoestrogens that can cause Professor ­ through their symbiotic relationship Animal Science with Rhizobium bacteria and, there­ reproductive problems in livestock, especially sheep. Sheep should not be fore, are not dependent on nitrogen fertilizer. The fixed nitrogen is grazed on these clovers during the Paul Beck primarily used to support clover breeding season. On rare occasions, Professor ­ Animal Science growth, but parts of it become avail­ some clovers become infected with able to neighboring grass plants when a fungus that causes “slobbers” or clover tissue dies. A second valuable excessive salivation in cattle and role of clovers is to increase forage horses. If this occurs, animals should quality of pastures, hays or silages. be removed from the offending forage. Legumes are higher in crude protein and digestibility than most grasses In summary, clovers are beneficial commonly used in Arkansas. Animals additions to many forage programs usually consume diets higher in because of improved forage growth quality than grass alone when pas­ distribution, increased forage yield, tured on grass/legume mixtures or increased forage quality and reduced fed grass/legume hays. As a result, nitrogen fertilizer costs. These animal performance often improves benefits lead to increased animal when a clover is included in pastures, performance and profitability of the even though total forage yield may not livestock enterprise. Winter annual increase. Adding clovers to endophyte­ clovers are considered better adapted infected tall fescue pastures also to soil and environmental conditions improves performance of cattle by in southern Arkansas than perennial diluting the toxicity of the endophyte. clovers. Perennial clovers are slower A third advantage is that clovers can to establish than annuals and are not help even out the forage supply over very long­lived in the hot, humid the grazing season by providing Coastal Plains region of southern Arkansas Is grazing time when other forages are Arkansas. Our Campus not as active or dormant. In this fact sheet, the characteris­ Clovers are implicated in some tics of annual and perennial clovers health problems for livestock. Many are described including procedures for Visit our web site at: s .uada clovers can cause bloat in grazing establishment. http ://www.uaex .edu University of Arkansas, United States Department of Agriculture, and County Governments Cooperating excellent cold tolerance. Like white clover, it will go Perennial Clovers dormant during the summer heat, but it flowers later than white clover during a more defined period. Red White Clover clover is not tolerant of frequent close grazing and is White and ladino clover are the same species. best suited to hay meadows or paddocks that are The only difference is that ladino­type cultivars have rotationally stocked. Red clover is reasonably shade­ been selected for a taller plant and higher yields. tolerant and is particularly well­suited to mixtures These traits make ladino more suitable for hay than with tall grasses like tall fescue and dallisgrass. It common or wild­type white clover (also called Dutch has the best seedling vigor of any perennial clover, white clover). Common white clover grows very close which makes it a good choice for overseeding into to the ground and is perfectly adapted for use under cool­season perennial grasses. Natural reseeding is continuous grazing systems or for livestock species unlikely to be sufficient to maintain stands. It has that graze close to the ground, such as sheep or excellent forage quality and contains a higher propor­ horses. It is difficult for animals to kill common tion of bypass protein than most other forages. As a white clover through overgrazing. result, cattle sometimes perform surprisingly well on this forage. White clover is cold­tolerant throughout the state and is among the most tolerant clovers for wet Red clover can cause bloat. It contains phytoestro­ soil conditions. However, it will not tolerate summer gens that can impair the fertility of sheep but is not heat and drought very well. In northern parts of the likely to cause fertility problems if grown in mixed state, plants go dormant during summer. In southern grass/legume stands. Red clover is the clover most parts of the state, they likely will die in summer. commonly implicated in cases of slobbers, but this is However, common white clover is a prolific reseeder, an unusual problem that should not discourage use of so stands will probably regenerate each fall. White the clover. clover is generally a very good reseeder, but some ladino types are poor reseeders. White clover is Planting rate for red clover is 10­12 lb/acre. shade­tolerant but can be shaded out of mixtures ‘Cherokee’, ‘Kenland’, ‘Kenstar ’ and ‘Redland II’ are by taller grasses if canopy height is not carefully proven varieties for Arkansas. There are many others managed by hay cutting or grazing management. that may also work well. It does not generally persist well in mixtures with tightly sodded grasses like bermudagrass or bahia­ Alsike Clover grass. White clover spreads laterally via aboveground stems called stolons. Bloat potential of white clover Alsike clover is better suited for the northern tier is considered high. counties of Arkansas than for more southern ones. It has better tolerance of wet and acid soils than most Planting rate is 2­3 lb/acre. Proven white clover clovers. Alsike clover is not tolerant of shade. It varieties for Arkansas include ‘Osceola’, ‘Louisiana should not be used for horse pastures because it has a S­1’, ‘Regal’, ‘Patriot’ and ‘Durana’, and there are tendency to cause photosensitization, or sun scald, in many newer varieties that may also work well. When that livestock species. Seeding rate is 4­6 lb/acre. testing newer, unproven varieties, producers should start by seeding a small area to check for local adaptability. Sweetclover The two sweetclover species (yellow and white) are not true clovers. These are biennial plants that Red Clover reseed well to form “perennial” stands. Sweetclover is Red clover is classified as a perennial but is extremely tall, up to 8 feet. They are winter­hardy generally considered to act like a biennial with a throughout Arkansas and tolerant of drought but do useful stand life of only two to three years. In south not tolerate acid soils. Sweetclover contains a bitter Arkansas, it often acts like an annual and does not compound called coumarin which is extremely survive through extremely hot summers. It has distasteful to animals. In moldy sweetclover hay, coumarin is converted into the toxic compound dicumarol which causes sweetclover poisoning in Arrowleaf Clover cattle. Low­coumarin sweetclover varieties are avail­ Arrowleaf clover is a tall clover that holds its able (white ‘Polara’ and yellow ‘Norgold’). Planting quality well for a longer period of time than most rate is 10­15 lb/acre. annual clovers. It is among the latest­maturing clovers and may produce forage into June. Its late maturity makes it a good match to be grown with annual ryegrass. Arrowleaf clover will germinate at Annual Clovers cooler temperatures than crimson clover. It is not In Arkansas, all the annual clover species tolerant of infertile, acid soils. Animals rarely bloat perform best as winter annuals, meaning that they on arrowleaf clover. Periodic grazing to a height of germinate in fall, grow through the winter, flower 2 to 4 inches promotes new growth and reduces plant and set seed in spring or early summer and then die. disease outbreaks. The purplish­red color of arrowleaf For some species, the seeds that were naturally pro­ clover leaves is a symptom that the plant is stressed duced will continue the cycle in the following year, by something such as nutrient deficiency, insects, while others must be replanted every year. Annual diseases or weather. Arrowleaf reseeds well under clovers can be overseeded onto dormant warm­season grazing, but much of the seed it produces is hard, grasses, either alone or in combination with small which makes year­to­year stand regeneration some­ grains and annual ryegrass. what unpredictable. Regrowth (and reseeding) should not be expected after a hay crop is harvested. Plant­ Because annual clovers complete their life cycle ing rate is 5­7 lb/acre. Standard varieties are ‘Yuchi’ each year, they must be re­established from seed. and the disease­tolerant ‘Apache.’ The clover stand can be re­established either by replanting each year or relying on natural reseeding. Reliance solely on natural reseeding increases risk of Ball Clover establishment failure, because the producer depends Ball clover is another low­growing clover with on good conditions in late spring for clover seed pro­ excellent tolerance of close grazing. It also has good duction as well as in the fall for seed germination and tolerance of wet, clay or loam soils. Ball clover toler­ seedling development. For natural reseeding to occur, ates lower soil acidity than crimson clover. Ball clover grazing and hay harvest should be managed to allow has poor cold tolerance and is best suited to southern some of the clover to mature in late spring for seed Arkansas. Bloat is a serious concern with this clover, production.
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