Kentucky Native Plant Society Sandbox

Tag: Kentucky clover

  • Could Native Clovers have High Nutritional Value for Beef Cattle in the Upper South? A new research project at Virginia Tech

    Makayla Bryant1, Jonathan Omar Cole Kubesch1,2

    • Virginia Tech School of Plant and Environmental Sciences; Blacksburg, VA
    • Country Home Farms; Pembroke, VA

    Eastern North America’s tall fescue grasslands produce a plethora of beef stockers, replacement heifers, and cow-calf pairs. These pastures replaced a variety of native woodlands and grasslands in the past 70 years. While tall fescue is a useful forage for much of the year, most tall fescue acreage consists of toxic endophyte Kentucky 31 tall fescue. This endophyte reduces animal performance in terms of average daily gain, reduced reproductive success, and decreased milk production. A lot of this tall fescue acreage cannot be easily converted to alternate forages, such as novel endophyte tall fescue or warm-season forages, in part due to soil conservation as well as economic constraints.

    Producers might be able to reduce or eliminate toxic endophyte effects in cattle by overseeding this tall fescue with clovers. Clovers (Trifolium spp) are commonly overseeded into tall fescue stands. Red (T. pratense) and white (T. repens) clovers are currently recommended in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia for pasture clover. There are native alternatives to red and white clover.

    A suite of native clovers are present in the United States. Kentucky historically had at least three native species from the Mississippi River to the Appalachian Plateau. These species were present in native grasslands and woodlands throughout the region at the time of European settlement. Native clovers declined with land use change, overgrazing, and fire suppression, but they are still present in modest populations. Native clovers serve a similar nutritional role to wildlife as red and white clovers serve for livestock. Conservation crop science has led to some study as to whether native clovers are agronomically competitive with red and white clover.

    Cattle nutrition can justify native clover conservation in pastures

    Clovers provide crude protein to cattle in cool-season grasslands. This additional crude protein comes with no additional nitrogen (N) fertilization. Native clovers often serve as the protein concentrate for native ungulates such as bison and deer, as well as monogastric species such as turkeys. Secondary metabolites, such as isoflavones, can dilute or interfere with the alkaloids found in tall fescue pastures. Screening native clover species for traditional metrics of nutritive value can make subsequent analysis for secondary metabolites more effective. Ultimately, this project would provide publishable data regarding the nutritional value of native clovers in comparison to red and white clover under common conditions. This data would guide existing research at Virginia Tech, including Bee-friendly Beef (NIFA-funded). Native clovers are a prime candidate for native plants in livestock production. Including native plants in working grasslands could provide production and conservation opportunities, especially if native clovers offer improved animal nutrition over introduced species.

    Native clovers can support cattle and co-exist with non-native grasses

    Native clovers are an important protein source in the western rangelands. Species nutritional value has been reported for several of the species native to California, Wyoming, and Oregon range (Bentley & Green, 1954; Cooper, 1957; Cooper and Hunter, 1959; Hamilton, 1961; Hamilton & Gilbert, 1971). These western clovers establish in stands and grow similarly to their nonnative equivalents (Lulow, 2008). Clovers from the eastern United States have only recently been investigated for their agronomic potential. Native clovers have similar agronomic performance relative to traditional red and white clovers.

    This is a picture of native clover seedlings in the greenhouse.
    Image: Jonathan Kubesch

    1990s research suggests that native and nonnative clovers cannot be easily crossed, but native species such as Carolina (T. carolinianum) and peanut (T. polymorphum) clovers in addition to the buffalo clovers have improved pest resistance relative to red and white clovers (Taylor et al., 1994; Quesenberry et al., 1997). Running buffalo clover (T. stoloniferum) is competitive in orchardgrass stands subject to hay and forage clipping schedules (Barker and Sparks, 2013). Running buffalo clover also appears to persist in regularly grazed pastures (e.g. Taylor Fork Ecological Area, Eastern Kentucky University; Good Enough Farm, Peru, Indiana). Buffalo clover (T. reflexum) has a similar seed weight and comparable establishment as red and white clovers (Sanne et al., 2023; Kubesch et al., 2023). This work is lacking in reporting the nutritional value of these native clovers.

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  • Clarks Rivers NWR Buffalo Clover (Trifolium reflexum) evaluation and conservation

    Jonathan O.C. Kubesch*, Kelly Winklelpleck*, Connor Doyle*, Lindsey Barbini*, John H. Fike*, and Michael Johnson**

    *Virginia Tech School of Plant and Environmental Sciences

    **Clarks River National Wildlife Refuge

    Summary

    Buffalo clover (Trifolium reflexum) is a true native clover of eastern U.S. provenance. Previous research suggests that buffalo clover has seed yields and weights similar to introduced clover species (making it suitable for increase). However, such research is limited, with little comparison of plant material from across the northern range of the species. In fact, there is overrepresentation of southern accessions from Georgia, Texas, Mississippi, and Florida. This overrepresentation stems from historical seed collections coming from Coastal Plain collections. In order to better represent accessions from the northern range of the species (both in current research and for future studies), this project sought to 1) conduct a comparison of buffalo clover accessions from across the range against red clover (T. pretense); and 2) bank seed from the Clarks River population for use in conservation and research. Plants were grown from seed to seed and studied in a common garden experiment with efforts taken to maintain genetic purity. Seed was then banked with the Southeastern Grasslands Initiative. Variability in phenotypes across the lifecycle were observed among northern and southern buffalo clover accessions, which suggests that the species complex has further structural variance. Southern accessions required less time to bloom and flowered without vernalization. Clarks River plant material has not yet flowered and appears to require vernalization.

    Introduction

    The native clovers of eastern North America are relics of the complex mosaic landscapes present prior to European settlement (Gillett and Taylor, 2001). Of these species, buffalo clover is an annual to biennial species with known morphological and reproductive variability (Vincent, 2001).

    Kentucky clover (T. kentuckiense) is a recent addition to the flora (Chapel and Vincent, 2013). Species delimitation between Kentucky and buffalo clover has been determined using primarily floral characteristics; however, vegetative characters in a common garden experiment might further resolve the relationships within the species complex.

    Previous work with Kentucky clover and running buffalo clover in greenhouse and field research suggest that these native species face fewer propagation challenges in comparison to other rare plants (Kubesch, 2018; Kubesch 2020). Historically, Dr. Norman Taylor at the University of Kentucky maintained all 3 clovers native to Kentucky in greenhouse collections (Kubesch, 2018; Daniel Boone, personal communication).

    The objectives of this project were to collect seed from the northern edge of the buffalo clover range and compare buffalo to Kentucky clover. It was hypothesized that Kentucky clover would be more morphologically similar to buffalo clover accessions from Kentucky and Ohio than to accessions from the Coastal Plain.

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