Kura Clover Forage Yield Contribution Increases Over Time When Seeded in Mixture with Grasses in Southwestern Québec

Abstract

An experiment was established to study Kura clover (KC, Trifolium ambiguum M. Bieb.) contribution to total forage yield in post-seeding years when mixed with different grass species and determine if it could be used to establish desirable legume:grass swards in extensively managed permanent pastures of southwestern Quésbec. Plots were established in 2001 in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Québec, Canada; treatments included solo-seeded KC, Kentucky bluegrass (KBG, Poa pratensis L.), smooth bromegrass (SB, Bromus inermis Leyss.), and timothy (TIM, Phleum pratense L.), and mixtures of KC with each grass species. Total forage yield and clover, grass, and weed yield contributions were determined from 2003 to 2006. Kura clover established slowly, its contribution to yield increasing over time, from 15% in the spring of 2003 when mixed with TIM or SB, to 72% in the spring of 2006. Such proportions could cause bloat in grazing animals. Kentucky bluegrass performed poorly when mixed with KC, its contribution to yield was always less than 20%. Grass yield and contribution to total forage yield decreased gradually from 2003 to 2006, grasses being replaced by weeds in solo-seeded grass plots and by KC in KC-grass mixtures. The presence of KC precipitated the decline of KBG and TIM, but not that of SB. Kura clover is a species that could contribute to extensively managed permanent pastures of southwestern Québec; however, KC-grass mixtures or management strategies that will maintain higher proportions of grass in the long-term must now be identified.