Course: SLF 150 Pasture Management

Reading & Audio Visual

The Role of Legumes in Soil Maintenance
The Role of Legumes in Soil Maintenance

Legumes are a group of plants that are able to convert nitrogen into a usable form for plants and animals. This group of plants includes clovers, alfalfa, beans and peas. There are both annual legumes like soybeans and cowpeas and perennial legumes like alfalfa, clovers (red and white) and Birdsfoot Trefoil.

There are many benefits to using legumes in your pasture management plan. Some of those benefits include:

1. Building Nitrogen: Legumes enrich the soil with usable nitrogen. Therefore, this helps farmers reduce amount of time and money spent on applying as much Nitrogen in the fertilization process (after interpreting soil results from soil test).
2. Use as Forage Species: Legumes are an excellent addition to many forage species. As a forage species/crop it is very palatable to livestock and supplies a strong amount of protein and other nutrients. Because of legumes ability to enrich nitrogen in the soil they also cause other forage species to prosper.