FOREST VALLEY FARM

Red Clover

7/20/2025

Red clover offers several benefits for regenerative cattle farming, enhancing soil health, animal performance, and farm sustainability. Here’s an overview based on current knowledge:

Nitrogen Fixation: Red clover, a legume, fixes 150–250 kg N/ha annually through symbiotic bacteria in root nodules, reducing the need for synthetic nitrogen fertilizers. This improves soil fertility for future crops and supports regenerative principles by minimizing chemical inputs.
High-Quality Forage: Red clover is highly palatable and rich in protein (16–22%), providing excellent nutrition for cattle. It supports higher liveweight gains and can reduce reliance on purchased feed, lowering costs.
Improved Animal Performance: Its high digestibility and protein content enhance dry matter intake and growth rates. For example, cattle grazing red clover can achieve daily gains up to 1.6 kg,. It’s particularly effective for finishing livestock.
Soil Health and Biodiversity: Red clover acts as a cover crop or living mulch, reducing soil erosion, suppressing weeds, and retaining moisture. Its deep taproots draw nutrients from deeper soil layers, enhancing soil structure and supporting pollinators like bees, which boosts ecosystem health.
Mitigation of Fescue Toxicosis: Red clover’s isoflavones counteract vasoconstriction caused by toxic tall fescue, improving blood flow and reducing heat/cold stress in cattle. This can increase daily gains by up to 1 lb/head/day in fescue-heavy pastures.
Reduced Input Costs: By fixing nitrogen and providing high-quality forage, red clover lowers fertilizer and feed expenses. For example, a Welsh farm achieved lamb production costs below £3/kg deadweight using red clover, with no concentrates needed.
Pasture Resilience: Red clover thrives in temperate climates and tolerates lower pH and poorly drained soils better than alfalfa, making it adaptable to varied conditions. New varieties are more grazing-tolerant, supporting rotational grazing systems.

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The Amazing Birdsfoot Treefoil

7/13/2025

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Birdsfoot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus L.) is a perennial legume that offers several benefits for cattle production, particularly in pasture and forage systems. Below are the key ways it helps cattle, based on its agronomic and nutritional properties:

High-Quality Forage: Birdsfoot trefoil provides high-quality forage comparable to alfalfa, with high protein content and good digestibility. It maintains its nutritional quality even at flowering and later stages of maturity, offering a wider harvest window than alfalfa, which loses quality as it matures. This makes it an excellent feed for cattle, supporting weight gain (up to 3.5 pounds per day in grazing systems) and milk production.
Non-Bloating: Unlike alfalfa and some clovers, birdsfoot trefoil contains condensed tannins, which prevent frothy bloat in ruminants. These tannins bind to proteins, reducing the formation of stable rumen foam that causes bloat, making it a safer forage option for cattle grazing in pure stands or mixtures.
Improved Protein Utilization: The condensed tannins in birdsfoot trefoil enhance protein bypass in the rumen, allowing more protein to be absorbed in the abomasum. This improves nitrogen utilization, leading to better meat and milk production while reducing nitrogen excretion in urine, which has environmental benefits.
Adaptability to Marginal Soils: Birdsfoot trefoil thrives in poorly drained, acidic (pH 5.5–6.5, tolerates as low as 4.5), or low-fertility soils where alfalfa struggles. This makes it ideal for marginal lands, ensuring consistent forage production in challenging environments.
Antiparasitic Properties: The condensed tannins in birdsfoot trefoil have anthelmintic effects, helping to suppress gastrointestinal parasites like the barber pole worm (Haemonchus contortus) in cattle. This is particularly valuable in organic systems where synthetic dewormers are avoided, improving animal health and reducing the need for pharmaceutical interventions.
Nitrogen Fixation: As a legume, birdsfoot trefoil fixes atmospheric nitrogen (50–130 lb/acre/year), enriching soil fertility and supporting companion grasses in mixed pastures. This reduces the need for synthetic fertilizers and enhances overall pasture productivity.
Forage Yield and Longevity: While its yield is typically 50–80% of alfalfa’s on fertile soils, birdsfoot trefoil can increase dry matter yield by up to 150% when interseeded into grass pastures. Its ability to reseed naturally and persist through self-seeding contributes to long stand life, reducing replanting costs.
Mitigation of Fescue Toxicosis: Grazing birdsfoot trefoil before consuming tall fescue infected with wild-type endophyte may reduce toxicity by binding toxic alkaloids, improving cattle performance on fescue-based pastures.

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Chicory, and how it benefits grazing.

7/11/2025

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We have a lot of Chicory available at certain times of the year, and the cows just love it. It is very beneficial to their overall health as well. Just keep in mind that for grass fed beef, it is only one component of many in their nutrition requirements. A very diverse mix of forbs and grasses gives you the best outcome.

Chicory (Cichorium intybus) offers several benefits for cows when incorporated into their diet or pasture. Here are some key advantages based on available research:

Improved Nutrition: Chicory is rich in minerals like potassium, calcium, and magnesium, and it contains high levels of digestible energy and protein, which support cow growth and milk production. Its deep taproot allows it to access nutrients from deeper soil layers, making it a nutrient-dense forage.
Enhanced Milk Production: Studies indicate that chicory can improve milk yield in dairy cows due to its high palatability and digestibility. It provides a consistent source of energy and nutrients, which can lead to increased milk fat and protein content.
Parasite Control: Chicory contains sesquiterpene lactones, which have antiparasitic properties. These compounds can reduce the burden of internal parasites like gastrointestinal worms in cows, potentially decreasing the need for chemical dewormers.
Drought Tolerance and Forage Availability: Chicory’s deep root system makes it drought-resistant, ensuring forage availability during dry periods when other grasses may fail. This can provide cows with a reliable food source in challenging climates.
Improved Rumen Health: The high fiber content and favorable carbohydrate profile of chicory can promote a healthy rumen environment, supporting better digestion and nutrient absorption.
Palatability and Grazing Preference: Cows find chicory highly palatable, encouraging consistent intake, which can improve overall feed efficiency and reduce selective grazing issues.

For optimal benefits, chicory is often used in mixed pastures with grasses and legumes, as it complements other forages. However, it should be managed carefully to avoid overgrazing, and its high protein content may require balancing with energy-rich feeds to prevent digestive issues.

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Is carbon a pollutant, or plant food?

6/20/2025

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The Peter Byck Show Drop-In #1 featuring Russ Conser

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About Salad Bar

6/17/2025

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This page will provide information, and insights about Grass, Forbes, and general information found on Forest valley Farms.

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