White Prairie Clover (Dalea candida Michx. ex Willd.) and Purple Prairie Clover (Dalea purpurea Vent.) in Binary Mixtures with Grass Species

Native forage legumes may have potential for summer/fall grazing in semiarid prairie regions in mixture with grasses. The objective of this study was to evaluate two native clovers in binary mixtures with the introduced grasses when harvested in July and September to simulate late summer or fall stockpile forage. Eight binary clover–grass mixtures were seeded in a split-plot design with 4 replications at Swift Current, Saskatchewan, Canada. Mixtures included (i) AC Antelope white prairie clover (WPC)-Admiral meadow bromegrass (MBG), (ii) WPC-AC Success hybrid bromegrass (HBG), (iii) WPC-Bozoisky Russian wildrye (RWR), (iv) WPC-TomRWR, (v) AC Lamour purple prairie clover (PPC)-AdmiralMBG, (vi) PPC-AC SuccessHBG, (vii) PPC-BozoiskyRWR, and (viii) PPC-TomRWR. Clover establishment differed (p = 0.03) in July where WPC had 77.8% greater proportion in mixture than PPC, although both clovers increased (p < 0.001) in September to similar legume proportions, 663.2 and 876.1 kg/ha, respectively. Clovers with bromegrasses produced 41.9% more forage dry matter yield in summer than clovers with Russian wildryes (p < 0.001), though the latter mixtures had slightly better nutritive value (avg. 7.0% vs. 5.2% crude protein (CP). Clover–MBG exhibited higher (53.6%) in vitro organic matter digestibility (IVOMD) than Clover–HBG (51.2%) (p = 0.04). Purple prairie clover with grass or both clovers in mixture with bromegrasses, produced adequate forage biomass for summer and fall grazing, except clovers with Bozoisky RWR, while clovers with both RWR cultivars had acceptable forage nutritive value for summer in this semiarid prairie region.