who does what with trefoil pasture???

[moonwolf]

Who has any pasture growing birdsfoot trefoil?
What do you pasture on that?
Do you get good results pasturing 'that' on the trefoil field?
What else would you pasture on a nice field of birdsfoot trefoil?
How about bees and honey from the blossoms? Is that good?

[fordson major]

34 years ago, friends bought the farm across the road from us, at the time it was seeded down to leo trefoil. as there were no fences we chopped the forage with a direct cut forage harvester. fed purebred angus, grade herfords and holstein heifers on the chop. later fed sheep and lambs. this land was wet acid soil that was high in phosphorus, stand lasted 15 years then was reseeded with alfalfa once the drainage was fixed. yield was not as good as alfalfa and was hard too cure for hay, also very prone too weeds ! our own land is gravely and grows other legume better though there is some in the sheep pastures. my horses avoid the stuff ,it's some what bitter too taste.

[seanmn]

In one of my sheep books it mentions that birdsfoot trefoil is much less likely to cause any bloat compared to alfalfa or clover

[Up North]

We grow a large amount of birdsfoot trefoil. We pasture our dairy cows and youngstock on it. We get high yeilds and the stands last forever it seems like. Trefoil is a lot more foregiving than clover or alfalfa. You can cut it after the optimum time and still have something worth feeding to a cow. We don't even worry about bloat when putting cows out of trefoil. Never has been a problem. Horses don't like it. Turkeys and pigs love it. Haven't had experience feeding it to any other critter. I don't produce my own honey buy I've seen alot of hives near trefoil fields.

Heather

[Ross]

It's devilishly hard to dry down to hay but great feed. We tried on rented ground once and failed to pull in no rain trefoil. It's also vicious on the hands as small square bales! Now that we have a windrow inverter I wouldn't mind trying more. In round bales!!!

In one of my sheep books it mentions that birdsfoot trefoil is much less likely to cause any bloat compared to alfalfa or clover

Yup has that reputation, probably well founded.

[moonwolf]

Ross,
My intent isn't to get into haying or baling the trefoil. The stand I now notice keeps coming back year after year. I don't cut it, and most of the 'weed' mixed with it is goldenrod. Where I mowed a trail, the trefoil low growth comes in almost pure with what grass is there, mostly timothy with it, and a bit of broadleaf weed. The trefoil eventually seems to choke out whatever is there if kept cut, and it continues blossoming profusely, especially about July to now until frost. I'm thinking some use for pasture and was considering like a chicken or turkey tractor idea, with maybe some beehives. Not baling or for hay, which I know is your main consideration.
Would yaks like trefoil? (tongue in cheek, but that could be a good animal to raise in our northland).