Renovation-Year Forage Quality of Grass Pastures Sod-Drilled With Kura Clover

Including legumes can enhance yield, quality, and animal performance potential of grass pastures. Kura clover is an exceptionally winter hardy forage legume with high forage quality (Taylor & Smith, 1998). However, its seedling vigor is poor. Herbicide sod suppression prior to sod drilling enabled kura clover to establish in the north central USA and eastern Canada (Cuomo et al., 2001; Laberge et al., 2005), but its percentage of renovation-year forage yield was less than for sod-seeded red or white clover. The objective of this study was to determine the influence of herbicide suppression and clover species on renovation-year forage quality of grass pastures sod-drilled with Kura clover versus red or white clover