Birdsfoot Trefoil and Clovers

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Birdsfoot Trefoil and Clovers

• Lecture 8
• Chapter 8

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Yellow flowers of BFT
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Origins of Birdsfoot Trefoil

• Two distinct types
• Empire
• European
• Widely distributed in the world
• Native to Europe, parts of Asia, N. Africa
• Mediterranean basin
• Greatest genetic diversity
• Regional center of origin

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Distribution of Birdsfoot Trefoil

• Europe, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay.
• India, Australia, New Zealand.
• Canada.
• United states.
• New York.
• Great lakes regions.
• SE to Georgia, Alabama higher elevations.
• Oregon, CA, WA.
• NE u.S.A.

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Adaptation of Birdsfoot Trefoil

• Soil types
• Soil fertility
• Infertile, acid, alkaline, mine spoils, saline
• Soil pH
• Soil drainage
• Winter survival

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Plant Description

• Many stems from single crown
• Pentifoliate leaves
• Darkness causes leaf folding around stem
• Taproot
• Long day plant
• Pollination
• Seed pods

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The shape of __________on Lotus corniculatus L.
gave it the common name birdsfoot trefoil.
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Pentafoliolate (five) leaf type
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Flowers of birdsfoot trefoil.
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Variation in birdsfoot trefoil flower color.
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Birdsfoot Trefoil is recognized for its Drought
and Roundup Resistance.
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Forage Quality of BFT

• Equal or greater than alfalfa
• Holds quality longer
• Pasture, hay, silage
• No bloat
• Tannins
• Precipitates protein
• HCN
• No harm to cattle, some insect resistance

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Beef cattle grazing a birdsfoot trefoil-grass
mixture established on reclaimed mined land.
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Importance and Use of BFT in USA

• 2 million acres in USA
• __________ acres in MI
• Replaces some red and white clover
• Expansion into SE USA
• Georgia I and AU Dewey, Al resistance
• Other uses
• Roadways, medians
• Erosion control, soil improvement

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Mixtures of BFT With Grasses

• Timothy, bromegrass, reed canarygrass, Kentucky
  bluegrass
• Native grasses
• Grass management
• Less competitive types or natural reseeding
• Regrowth and carbohydrates
• Low carbohydrates during growing season
• __________for regrowth no Sept cuts

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BFT in Pastures

• Prostrate and Intermediate Types
• Empire or Norcen, Steadfast
• Persistence
• reseeding
• leaf area after grazing
• Summer Stockpiling
• accumulate during spring and early summer
• dry, cool conditions

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BFT for Hay

• Erect growth types
• Cutting schedules
• 3 cuttings in S. MI, 2 in N. Mi
• Yields
• 3-5 t/a
• Lodging
• Cutting height

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Varieties of BFT

• 25 varieties in U.S. And Canada
• Viking, Norcen, empire, Georgia I, AU Dewey,
  Steadfast, Pardee
• Variability
• Selections
• Tissue culture
• Roundup resistance

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Management of BFT

• Inoculation
• Seeding
• 1/4 to 1/2 inch deep
• ___ lbs/a
• Time of seeding
• Soil fertility
• Ph 6.2 and above
• P and K response only on deficient soils

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Young birdsfoot trefoil seedlings are visible
through the thatch left from herbicide treatment
of a grass sod prior to minimum tillage seeding.
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Leaving shoot growth to accumulate for about 70
d, birdsfoot trefoil can produce ample seed to
maintain stands while leaving moderate-quality
forage.
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Regrowth originates from axillary buds on stem
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Seed Production of BFT

• Long day plants
• At least ___ hours daylight
• Flowering
• Indeterminate
• Pollination
• Pod development
• Maximum size 3 weeks after fertilized
• Seed yields (average 100 lbs/a)
• Harvest when pods are tan in color

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Birdsfoot trefoil seed is produced in northern
latitudes of the USA and parts of Canada where
long days in the summer months induce profuse
flowering and high seed set.
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Diseases of BFT

• Crown and root rots
• Ultimately kills mother plant
• Sclerotinia
• Rots lower stems and crown
• Rhizoctonia solani
• Warm, humid conditions
• Attacks lower foliage, crown, leaf blight

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These split birdsfoot trefoil crowns demonstrate
the severity of root- and crown-rot caused by a
complex of pathogens.
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This plant is expressing the death of some stems
probably caused by a species of Fusarium.
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Pests of BFT

• Spittlebugs
• Plant bugs
• Potato leafhoppers
• Trefoil seed Chalcids

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Other Species of BFT

• Narrowleaf trefoil (L. tenuis)
• Less erect than empire
• Shallow root systems
• Low seedling vigor
• N.Y., CA, WA, OR
• Big trefoil (L. pedunculatus)
• Larger leaves
• Rhizomes
• Naturalized in pacific NW

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Big trefoil produces vigorous stolon-like rhizomes
(underground stems)
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Birdsfoot trefoil relies upon reseeding to
maintain productive swards. Some locations don't
allow birdsfoot trefoil to flower properly since
day length or temperature delay timely flower
production.
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Origin of Red Clover in the U.S.

• Trifolium pratense
• Asia Minor and S.E. Europe
• Early Flowering Type from Spain
• 1650 Colonists carried to U.S.

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Uses of Red Clover in the U.S.

• Hay
• slow drying rates
• Pasture
• easy to establish
• improves productivity
• Soil Improvement
• potato
• corn-soybean-wheat

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Red Clover Distribution

• Types of Red Clover (day length response)
• Early flowering
• North America
• medium red
• Late flowering (longer photoperiod)
• Mammoth
• Wild red clover
• Europe, not found in USA

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Plant Description

• Numerous leafy stems
• hairy leaves and stems
• Flowers born on head in clusters
• heads up to 125 flowers
• Flower color
• rose purple or magenta
• Seed shape (mitten)

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Mitten Shaped Seeds of Red Clover
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Plant Description Continued

• Leaf shape
• leaf divided into 3 oblong leaflets
• variation
• Typical legume growth pattern
• 2 cotyledons
• unifoliate leaf
• trifoliate leaves
• produces shoots at axils

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Hairy Pubescence of Red Clover
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Nonglandular trichomes on the epidermis of a red
clover stem
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Red Clover in Second Year Establishment

• Taproot
• many secondary branches
• second year-taproot rots away
• survives by secondary roots
• Early versus Late Strains
• Single (leafy rosette first year)
• Double (flowering first year)
• Mowing in August promotes strong rosettes

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Red Clover Varieties and Strains

• Seed set by cross-fertilization
• Several Regional and Local Strains
• Canada 1x and 2x cut types
• USA 2x cut types
• USA diploid types predominate

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Red Clover Variety Performance

• E. Lansing
• Tyrant (Western Production) 10.3 2 yr total
• Cinnamon 10.1 2-yr total
• Emarwan 9.7 2-yr total
• Common 7.9 2-yr total

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Mammoth Red Clover

• Late flowering
• One cutting
• Plow down
• Popular in Canada
• Two-year clover

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Red Clover Production Practices

• Soil types
• fine textured
• high moisture holding
• Soil pH
• 6.0 or higher
• Drainage
• medium to well drained
• Fertility
• Phosphorus Potassium

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Seeding Red Clover

• Time of year
• Early Spring
• Nurse Crops
• Survives low light levels
• Mixtures
• Best with grasses
• Method of seeding
• Conventional, No-Till, Frost Seed

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Red Clover Management

• Straw removal
• Prevents smothering
• Clipping or harvest in August
• Promotes strong rosettes
• Winter survival
• Second year harvesting
• 20 Bloom
• Quality, Yield, Persistence

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Red clover regrowth after cutting
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Forage Quality of Red Clover versus Alfalfa

• Equal fiber
• Less crude protein
• Equal milk yields
• Greater NDF digestability and DM
• Lower intake
• Less feces

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Polyphenol Oxidase, enzyme, which results in
brown color of cured hay
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Red Clover versus Alfalfa

• Environmental Impact
• Red clover fed to 100 cow dairy herd
• Nitrogen excretion
• 1.5 tons reduction/year

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Silage Composition of Red Clover and Alfalfa
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Intake and Production (lbs./day)
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Red Clover Seed Production

• Second fiddle to forage
• Bees
• Competing flower crops
• white clover, wild flowers
• Seed head and stem color
• brown seed head, yellow stems
• Windrowing and combining

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Diseases and Pests of Red Clover

• Sclerotinia trifoliorum crown rot fungus
• Fusarium root rots
• Northern anthracnose
• Powdery mildew
• Viruses
• Leaf spot
• Clover root curculio
• Disease resistance is best control

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Clover Root Curculio Adult
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Clover Root Curculio Larvae
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Northern anthracnose symptoms on red clover
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Powdery mildew symptoms on red clover
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Root rot of red clover caused by Fusarium
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Disease and winter survival of red clover

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Sclerotinia trifoliorum sclerotia
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Kura clover
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Forage yield of legumes seeded in August 1984 and
cut 4 times per year in 1985-86 at Rosemount, MN.
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May 1987 stands of legumes seeded in August 1984
and cut 2, 3, or 4 times per year in 1985-86 at
Rosemount, MN.
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Endura
Rhizo
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