Legume Cover Crop Options for Grain Rotations in Wisconsin

Abstract

Use of forage legumes as cover crops in the year prior to corn (Zea mays L.) is one way to reduce the amount of N fertilizer used in corn production. This study evaluated several forage legumes for dry matter (DM) production during the seeding year when established in grain rotations. Field studies were conducted near Arlington and Marshfield, WI, in 1989 and 1990. Treatments consisted of nine forage legumes: medium and mammoth red clover (Trifolium pratense L.), dormant and nondormant alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.), alsike clover (T. hybridum L.), ladino clover (T. repens L.), hairy vetch (Vicia villosa Roth), and two cultivars of yellow sweetclover [Melilotus officinalis (L.) Lam.]. Five establishment treatments tested were: seeded in the spring, companion‐seeded with oat (Avena sativa L.), interseeded into corn at last cultivation, and seeded following harvest of either canning pea (Pisum sativum L.), or oat for grain. In general, legume DM yields were highest in establishment periods which offered the longest growing season with the least amount of competition from the primary crop. Hairy vetch, the only annual legume used in the study, produced the highest yields in each of the five establishment periods, as high as 9.76 Mg ha−1 when spring seeded. The climbiing nature of this legume, however, makes it an unwise choice for companion seeding with small grains, a situation where the true clover species are best adapted. Dry soil conditions following pea or oat harvest often limited legume germination, seedling growth, and ultimately DM yield. Interseeding of legume cover crops into corn at last cultivation resulted in low seeding‐year DM yields. From the results of this study, we conclude that several legume‐establishment period combinations could be used successfully to produce N‐containing biomass.

Effects of Cover Crops on Pratylenchus penetrans and the Nematode Community in Carrot Production

“…Cover crop biomass at the sites was within the range of values that are typically observed in the Midwestern United States for fall cover crops (Stute and Posner, 1993;Andraski and Bundy, 2005). However, fall cover crop growth is highly variable in the region and cover crop growth can be substantially greater than that observed in this study (Wang et al, 2008;Bjorkman et al, 2015).…”

Improving Resilience of Northern Field Crop Systems Using Inter-Seeded Red Clover: A Review

“…Meyer and Badaruddin demonstrated that one-week old red clover seedlings had the highest tolerance to freezing temperatures of −4 °C [66] and delaying planting may improve seedling survival by reducing the probability of exposing red clover to freezing temperatures at sensitive stages. Because of limited moisture, planting red clover in the late summer-early fall sequentially after a cereal crop generally results in poor establishment and low biomass yields [59]. Additionally, only 4% to 27% of the frost-seeded red clover seeds survive under a winter cereal canopy when averaged across red clover varieties, winter cereal species and seeding rates of both crops [25,65,[67][68][69][70].…”

“…Red clover above-ground biomass tends to be lower on coarser soils [55,91] and increasing biomass and red clover stand densities have been attributed to higher precipitation levels and a longer growing season [59,71,77]. The red clover growing season is mostly determined by the timing of wheat harvest and red clover killing date.…”

“…Legume cover crop can be grown in a relay cropping system where the legume is frost seeded under winter cereals or grown as a companion crop with spring cereals [35,[53][54][55][56] (Figure 1). Frost-seeded red clover (Trifolium pratense) into an established winter wheat stand have been shown to fix considerable amounts of nitrogen and have a sufficient growing period in temperate regions to establish a viable root system and produce a substantial amount of plant biomass without negatively affecting winter wheat yield [26,54,55,[57][58][59]. Red clover has traditionally been used in advance of maize, in maize-soybean-cereal rotations and has attracted increasing interest since nitrogen fertilizer costs have risen over the past several years [60].…”

Addressing the challenges of sustainable agriculture research and extension at land-grant universities: Radially organized teams at Wisconsin

“…The varied research and monitoring activities of the two projects have resulted in the following types of output: case studies (Harrison, 1993); computer software packages (Vasquez et al, 1991;Baldock and Posner, 1992); Extension publications (Doll et al, 1992); departmental papers (Gumz et al, 1993); project reports (Posner and Hall, 1993); professional presentations (Posner and Casler, 1992); and professional journal articles (Stute and Posner, 1993). …”