FROST SEED LEGUMES INTO PASTURES AND HAY MEADOWS
Adding clovers, alfalfa, or other legumes to grasslands can increase production and reduce nitrogen costs.
Legumes like red clover, alfalfa, and birdsfoot trefoil can make pastures and hay meadows more productive, higher quality, and reduce nitrogen fertilizer costs. But, you must accomplish three tasks correctly
to successfully add legumes to your grass.
First, fertilize for the legume. Legumes need phosphorus and a soil pH above 6, and sometimes higher, to establish and grow in a grass sod. So, add phosphorus and lime if needed.
Second, place seed into the soil. Many growers have tried adding legumes by frost seeding, which involves broadcasting seed on snow-free fields now during late winter. Then the freezing and thawing of the soil as spring approaches helps work the seed into the ground.
Unfortunately, we do not get enough freezing and thawing to do a consistently good job with frost seeding. So I suggest using a drill whenever possible, even if all it does is barely scratch your seed into the
soil. You will get faster, more uniform stands that way.
Then, as growth begins in the spring, reduce competition from the existing sod. You can do this by spraying Gramoxone on grass at greenup before legume seedlings emerge to stunt grass growth. Another option is flash grazing. Whenever grass get 3 to 4 inches taller than legumes this spring, put enough animals on the pasture to graze grass down to the height of the legumes in just 1 day. Then remove livestock until grass gets tall again and repeat the flash grazing.
Once established, legumes will make your grasslands better than ever.
