Legume Content in Forages

Legumes are widely grown because of their significant improvement of forage quality. Forage quality is the ability of forage to sustain desired levels of performance from animals. The quality of forage is a function of several factors, including:

• Palatability
• Intake
• Digestibility
• Nutrient content
• Animal performance

Using legumes for pasture is a common practice because of their positive effects on these factors.  Legumes generally contain greater crude protein, calcium and phosphorus content, and lower fiber than grasses. In most cases legumes also favor a higher intake. They also have a unique ability to fix nitrogen from the air, which eliminates the need to buy expensive nitrogen fertilizers.

Using legumes as a green manure can also provide a host of benefits to an operation. Along with the benefit of nitrogen fixation legumes provide a break in the cereal/oilseed crop rotation, reducing the disease pressure. The crop also acts as ground cover which protects valuable topsoil from wind and water erosion. Finally an increase in soil aggregation occurs with time, this builds soil structure promoting aeration and water infiltration. Legumes are an essential component of sustainable agriculture, over seeding with legumes can provide high quality livestock feed, nectar, seed, green manure, and soil cover.

This topic has been identified as a research priority for SCIANS in 2010.