2008 Annual Report for FNC07-660
Interseeding Legumes into Established Cool Season Pastures
Summary
WORK ACTIVITIES
No grant funds have been used to date. Because we were led to believe that grant funds would not be available until late spring and seeding needed to take place in late winter/early spring, we decided to use non grant funds to do pilot work in year one. The legumes needed to be planted by early March if at all possible to give them adequate time to germinate and mature.
We therefore used non grant funds to purchase small quantities of the eight legumes, combined them into three mixes, based on seed size, and inoculated and planted them using a Great Plains no-till drill (10 ft wide/ 7.5 in row spacing ) on 3/14/08.
• Mix 1 contained: alfagraze alfalfa, sweetclover, birdsfoot trefoil, red clover, and white clover.
• Mix 2 contained: yellow flower alfalfa, Korean lespedeza, red clover, white clover, and cicer milkvetch.
• Mix 3 contained: hairy vetch (only large sized seed in group).
Mix 1 was seeded at 9.7 #/A, mix 2 at 10.5 #/A, mix 3 at 14.2#/A.
The legumes were planted into the other side of the two paddocks intended to be used in our proposal. An unfertilized 100 ft. strip was utilized to plant two 10 foot swaths of each mix in the order: mix 1, mix 2, mix 3, mix 1, mix 2, and mix 3. Each swath ran the length of the two paddocks (880 ft.). On 3-10-08, 40 # of N (urea) was spread in two marked 40 ft. bands perpendicular to the swaths of planted legumes. One fertilizer band was on the lowland type soil, and one band on the upland type soil.
RESULTS
The legume stand was evaluated on 6-27-08 and 10-10-08 using a square frequency frame as described in our proposal. Almost no legumes seedlings were found– the only species found in any number was Korean lespedeza, and that mainly where the brome stand was thin.
Although this year’s results were disappointing, they are at least partially explainable. On 5-20-08 during an informal observational walk through the test plots, numerous small legume seedlings had emerged but were nearly desiccated from several weeks without precipitation. The weather was hot and dry, and much needed spring rains didn’t come until a week later. However, the seedlings did not survive that final week without moisture. It is our belief that the seedlings simply could not survive the severe moisture stress they were exposed to from the weather and the competing smooth bromegrass. The lespedeza, being a summer annual legume, emerged later and thus survived. Additionally we did observe good seedling stands on a few isolated small bare ground spots without any grass competition, particularly in the lowland soil area.
We believe we learned three important things from this years work.
1. We did get good emergence using the no-till drill, so we can plant next year with that assurance.
2. The vigor of the existing brome stand needs to be reduced if possible. To that end the brome where we will seed was grazed short last fall, has not been fertilized since spring of 2008, and some of it was burned recently.
3. Periods without precipitation may be the most critical factor limiting seedling establishment.
WORK PLAN FOR 2009
As described in our original proposal, with the following additions,
A small area of clean tilled farm ground in an adjacent field will be planted to evaluate seedling performance when no competition is present.
Thirteen acres of another brome pasture will be seeded to a mixture of: yellow flowered alfalfa, sweetclover, birdsfoot trefoil, and white clover to see if establishment will be successful. These are the perennial or biennial species we hypothesize may persist in a long term mix.
OUTREACH
Nothing formal this year—as proposed next year.