# Berseem Clover



## kentuckyguy (Apr 13, 2015)

Anyone tried berseem clover in a mix for dry hay? I'm looking for a legume that will stand lower PH and give a high yield and protein content.


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## glasswrongsize (Sep 15, 2015)

kentuckyguy said:


> Anyone tried berseem clover in a mix for dry hay? I'm looking for a legume that will stand lower PH and give a high yield and protein content.


I'm not that familiar with that type of clover, but a quick google search says "Producing haylage is the most common harvesting method because the plant biomass can be difficult to dry."

Now, on to the reason that I stuck my uninformed neck to respond. I have POOOOOR soil with ph ranging from 5.4 to 6.4 (depending on the field) and have had good luck with Ladino clover. It's also a white clover with a small thin stem and is SUPPOSED to dry faster. My grass/ladino has been accepted by the local horse people and have had no slobbering or bloat feeding it. My (nearly) pure Ladino field is on 6.0 ph soil and was doing fine and was established before I added lime (2 years ago) to start to raise the ph. It just keeps getting better and thicker to the point that I overseeded with KY32 (11 lbs per acre) this year to hopefully help the drying of it. One cutting took 8 days to dry last year-partly because it was sooo thick; partly because of higher humidity (I surmise).

Another legume that is a favorite of mine is lespedeza. The U of I says the following for MY AREA for lespedeza:

Lespedeza (Korean) is a popular warm-season annual legume in the southern third of Illinois. The annual species is more palatable and higher yielding than the perennial type (Sericea).

Major strengths Will tolerate low productive, eroded soils Easy to establish; can be frost seeded Will reseed itself Does not cause bloat

Major weaknesse Lower yielding Relatively shallow root system Risk of rapid leaf shatter when harvested as hay Seed may contain considerable amount of hard seed.

I know I did not answer your question, but info might be helpful if you are on the fence about what to plant.

I just seeded a new field in Lespedeza/OG and it is starting to poke out of the soil. High hopes.

73, Mark


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## RockyHill (Apr 24, 2013)

X2 on the Korean lespedeza. We raised it for a couple of years; customers loved it and some still ask for it. Ours started dying out and we decided to go to straight orchardgrass. For us the Korean was one cutting but it yields good. As with legumes baling without loosing leaves is a challenge.

Shelia


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## kentuckyguy (Apr 13, 2015)

Do you just get one cutting from lespedeza?

Do you plant grass with it?

At Hancock seed its $300 for 50 lb. recommended to sow 30lbs/acre.

Does it dry good?


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## TJH (Mar 23, 2014)

You need to look around, 6 dollars a pound for lespedeza seed is NUTS. Here Korean Lespedeza is selling for 60 cents a pound. From what I've seen Hancock seed is about one of the highest priced seed dealers in the country if not the highest.


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## RockyHill (Apr 24, 2013)

We sowed oats and Korean in the spring. There would be some Korean in the oats and then a fall cutting of the Korean. Getting the oats cut at the right time was a challenge.

We were getting the seed for around .50 - .60 a pound (about '09) and then price went to close to $5 a pound within a couple of years.

Makes beautiful hay, not hard to cure (unlike clover), with the right weather conditions even here can be mowed one day and baled the next. Baling at the right moisture and humidity conditions to retain leaves is the key.

Shelia


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