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March 2011 Articles

Louisiana Cattle Market Update
Linclon Parish fifth-graders learn about water, aquifer
Will the Internet kill magazines?
AfBF: Passage of Tax Legislation Most Pressing Issue
It's time to plant cool-season bedding plants
Try non-chemical, enviromentally friendlly weed control
NCBA: Vilsack Ignores Bipartisan Attempts to Help Cattle Industry
A Plan for Feeding Cattle From Now Until Spring
Giving Thanks by Giving
Farm Bureau Asks Sentate to Oppose Federal Water Control Bill
E15 for 2007 and Newer Vehicles Benefits America
LDAF crews continue to handle wildfires, dry conditions
Winter is best time to select and plants trees
LSU AgCenter produces first broilers in new houses
First Caddo Parish cotton bale auctioned
What to do when Hayis Short
• The Nirtogen value of Clover
Just Rambling March 2011

(18 articles found)

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The Nirtogen value of Clover

The Nitrogen Value of Clover Source: Mike Turpin, USDA /NRCS Grazing Lands Specialist
Adding clover to your grazing system can pay huge dividends in the form of high quality grazing and reduced nitrogen fertilization costs. Due to rapidly increasing fertilizer prices, there has been a tremendous increase in interest in planting and grazing forage legumes, such as clover. Forage legumes have the ability to remove or “fix” atmospheric nitrogen in a form that plants can utilize. The legume plant itself does not remove nitrogen from the air. The nitrogen is removed from the atmosphere and converted to ammonium which can be utilized by the plant by Rizobium bacteria which live in nodules on the legume roots. This converted ammonium is the same form of ammonium found in commercially manufactured ammonium nitrate and ammonium sulfate. Forage legumes have been grown and utilized by livestock producers in the United States at least since Colonial times. Benjamin Franklin wrote of clover being grazed as early as 1746. Although many countries in South America, as well as, Australia and New Zealand have always relied on forage legumes for high quality grazing and a source of nitrogen fertilization, interest in growing and managing legumes for grazing declined in the United States after World War II. This decline in the production of legumes was caused in part by nitrogen manufacturing technologies that were developed for the production of explosives during World War II and an inexpensive supply of natural gas, making the commercial production of economical nitrogen fertilizer possible. Slightly more than 16,000 ft of natural gas is used to manufacture a ton of ammonium nitrate. The average wholesale price of natural gas, which is used in the production of nitrogen based fertilizers and can account for up to 75 percent of the cost of production, has more than doubled since 2002. Because of this increase and other economic and regulatory factors, the price of nitrogen based fertilizers has followed a similar trend. The amount of commercially manufactured nitrogen applied to pastures can be reduced or eliminated by planting clover or properly managing existing stands of clover in these pastures. The amount of nitrogen fixed from the atmosphere by clovers has been estimated to range from almost 0 to over 200 pounds per acre. Many factors such as overgrazing, length of the growing season., soil type and the amount of nitrogen present in the soil will influence the amount of nitrogen that is fixed by clover from the atmosphere. Clovers growing on a sandy soil that is deficient in nitrogen will fix most of the nitrogen the plant needs from the atmosphere while clovers growing in nitrogen rich river bottom soil will get most of the nitrogen it needs from the soil.. Research indicates that, in general, the amount of nitrogen fixed by clovers from the atmosphere will range from 80 to 100 pounds per acre. The factor that can have the greatest influence on the amount of nitrogen that clover can fix from the atmosphere is the use of the specific Rhizobium inoculants required by the species of clover planted. Different species of clover requires different strains of Rhizobium bacteria. It is important to purchase the inoculants that is specific for the species of clover to be planted. Inoculant can be purchased with or without a sticking agent. The sticking agent helps the inoculants to adhere to the seeds. If using a regular inoculants without a sticking agent, mix the inoculants and seed with enough sweetened soft drink to cause the inoculants to adhere to the seed. Diet soft drinks do not contain enough sugar to be a good sticking agent and should not be used. All clover seed that is not purchased preinoculated should be inoculated within 24 hours prior to planting. Once the clover seed germinates and begins to form roots the rhizobia bacteria enter or infect the clover plant through infection sites on new root hairs and form nodules where the rhizoba bacteria live. This infection is a mutually beneficial relationship. The rhizobia bacteria fix nitrogen from the atmosphere and convert this nitrogen into a form that is usable by the clover plant and the clover plant produces carbohydrates that serve as an energy source for the bacteria. Establishing a new species of clover into a pasture that has a different, established species of clover can be difficult. The rhizobia strain that infected the existing clover species is established in the soil and may prevent infection by the introduced rhizobia bacteria. Some clovers, such as white and red, use the same strain of bacteria and would be compatible. Clovers that do not use the same strain may be infected by the existing population of bacteria and form inefficient nodules that fix little or no nitrogen from the atmosphere. There is a common misconception that nitrogen is released from the root of a growing clover plant and this nitrogen will supply surrounding plants with nutrition. This is only partially correct. Research has shown that there is a small amount of nitrogen released or leaked from the nodules and roots of actively growing clover, but it is an insignificant amount. The primary method of nitrogen transfer from the clover plant to the surrounding soil is by decomposition of plant material. As clover plants mature and die the nodules, roots, stems and leaves are decomposed by soil microbes and slowly release nitrogen into the soil. This slow release of nitrogen is beneficial to warm season grasses and other plants and will reduce or eliminate the need for nitrogen fertilization during this growing season. Proper grazing management to avoid over grazing is essential for maximum transfer of nitrogen form clover to the surrounding soil. Grazing clovers and other legumes to a minimum stubble height, depending on species, of two to three inches and then rotating the animals to another pasture will allow the clover to produce more forage and fix more nitrogen. Animals grazing these forages will excrete in the manure and urine, 80– 90 percent of the nitrogen contained in the forage. Rotational grazing of clovers will facilitate more efficient nitrogen transfer by improving the distribution of urine and manure. The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) offers both technical and cost share assistance with grazing land resource management though the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). Participation in EQIP conservation practices can help the grazing manager to develop the skills and knowledge needed for effective grazing management and sound land stewardship.. Contact your local USDA/Natural Resources Conservation Service office to request further assistance.

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