Sweetclover Distribution

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• Sweetclover Distribution
• Road right-a-ways
• North Dakota 18,650 acres in 2006
• 12,615 acres in 2007

Yellow 16,197 White 1,103 Sub
103 Red 5 Purple Prairie 18
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Road right-a-ways frequently have sweetclover
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South Dakota Ranges
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North Dakota Ranges
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• Species, varieties, and strains
• Melilotus dentata wild species, low coumarin
  (LC), white flowered
• Melilotus alba white sweetclover, biennial
  (85) and annual types

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• Biennial, white-flowered varieties
• Denta first LC out of Wisconsin
• Spanish
• Evergreen
• Arctic (Saskatchewan)
• Polara (1970 Canada), LC cultivar
• Common (seed of uncertified origin)

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• Annuals
• Lower producing
• Less N fixed than biennial
• Greater yield than biennial in first production
  year
• Hubam (Iowa)
• Floranna
• Israel
• Emerald

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• Melilotus officinalis yellow sweetclover,
  biennials
• Madrid
• Goldtop
• Yukon (winter hardy Madrid)
• Norgold (1980, Saskatchewan), first and only LC
  yellow-flowered cultivar
• Common yellow flowered
• Melilotus indica sour clover, green manure in
  South

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Watch seed sources of LC cultivars, loose LC
character from outcrossing.
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Desirable Qualities of Sweetclover

• Relative high 1-cut yield
• Vigorous under proper management
• Winter hardy
• ( or gt alfalfa)
• More heat and drought tolerant than alfalfa
• Biennial, good in short rotations

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Outstanding for Soil Improvement
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• Good seed producer 200 lb/A common in ND
• Palatable if animals adapted to coumarin
• Feed value to alfalfa in late bud stage much
  lower at full bloom
• Active auxiliary buds
• Well adapted to saline alkali soils

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• Undesirable forage qualities
• Hard seed content gt 70 in seed pod, weed
  potential
• Sensitive to 2,4-D and MCPA drift
• 2,4-DB will take sweetclover out of alfalfa
• No herbicides cleared for use on sweetclover
  Pursuit off label for clear-seeded
• Bloat hazard
• Poor hay if mature, toothpicks
• Cut at late bud to prevent
• Use as silage
• Sensitive to low pH (acid soils)

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• Sweetclover bleeding disease
• Coumarin
• Lactone existing as a glycoside
• 2 to 2.5 of metabolically active tissue
• Greatest at late bud to first flower
• Decreases palatability
• But does not cause bleeding disease

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• Dicoumarol
• Coumarin Molding Dicoumarol
• Decreases blood prothrombin
• Symptoms

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Prevention of bleeding disease

• Dry hay
• Time-honored method
• Frequently reduces quality
• Rewetting
• Watch storage no pyramids
• No winter carryover of hay
• Properly preserved silage

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High-Moisture Hay Preservatives

• Anhydrous ammonia
• Increases IVDMD and crude protein
  concentrations
• Reduces dicoumarol formation at higher moisture
  levels
• Propionic acid

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Anhydrous Ammonia Effects on Hay

Treatment Dicoumarol N IVDMD
mg/kg -----------------------
Original hay none 3.0 72.7 20
moisture Untreated 44 3.3 65.9
Proprionic acid 29 3.1 66.8 Anhydrous
ammonia 8 4.1 68.6
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Undesirable Forage Qualities

• Requires careful management
• Stemy and woody when mature
• Active axillary buds
• Poor recovery after cutting
• Black stem, root rots, stem canker
• Sweetclover weevil (Sitona cylindricollis)
• Affects CRP seedings some years

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Sweetclover weevil feeding damage
Crescent-shape feeding on leaflets
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Leave at least 6 to 12 inches of stubble for
regrowth.
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Red Clover in Minnesota
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Red Clover

• Origin Asia Minor and southeastern Europe
• Grown in Northcentral and Northeast states,
  including Minnesota
• Cool to warm climate with adequate rainfall
• Winter annual in southeastern USA
• Irrigated fields in Pacific Northwest
• Used as overseeding species in pastures

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• Strains and cultivars
• Wild red clover found in England
• Medium red clover
• Diploid, early flowering types
• 2 to 3 cuts annually
• Short-lived perennial or frequently acts like
  biennial
• Cultivars Arlington, Kenstar, Lakeland, Redland
  II, Prosper I, common

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• Mammoth red clover
• Late-flowering types (daylength response) 10 to
  14 days
• 1 cut normal
• No flowers seeding year, rosette
• Altaswede, Nortac
• Interspecific hybrids

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• Desirable forage qualities
• Widely adapted on fine-texture, high-moisture
  soils
• Seed production good where grown
• Seedlings very competitive
• Tolerates slightly more acid soils
• Yield alfalfa in first year (3 cuts)
• Late-bud alfalfa 25 bloom red clover in
  quality
• Short rotations

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• Undesirable forage qualities
• Subject to winter injury/kill, used as biennial
  frequently
• Drought susceptible (shallow rooting)
• Lacks vegetative propagation
• Bloating legume, lt alfalfa
• Lacks heat and drought tolerance

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• Disease problems
• Powdery mildew, weaken stands
• Northern anthracnose, girdles stems or petioles
• Southern anthracnose higher temperatures
• Root and crown rots
• Fusarium, Rhizoctonia, Gliocladium, and
  Sclerotina
• Viruses, bean yellow mosaic virus (BYMV)

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• Insect problems
• Clover rootborer (Hylastinus obscurus)
• Borers tunnel through roots
• Rotation best
• Potato leafhopper
• Doesnt attack hairy strains
• European non hairy
• Clover seed chalid seed production

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• Other true clovers
• Perennials
• White clover, largest acreage of Trifolium spp.,
  pasture

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• Alsike clover tolerates more flooding,
  acidity, and alkalinity
• Strawberry, kura (rhizomatous), and zigzag
  clover

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• Annual clovers
• Arrowleaf clover, winter annual
• Crimson clover, winter annual for forage and
  green manure in South
• Ball, subterranean, berseen, rose, Persian, and
  hop

Crimson clover