Forage Heading
You Are Here Pointer Ag Programs » Forages in the Cross Timbers  
Links to:   Winter Legumes,  Winter Grasses,  Summer Legumes:  Dryland - Irrigation,  Summer Grasses:  Dryland - Irrigation
Summer Legumes Under Dryland: Annuals and Perennials
Annuals:
Any forages grown dryland in the Cross Timbers are difficult to establish due to erratic rainfall, making stand failures common. Even if you are willing to take the risk and successful establishment takes place, annuals tend to provide grazing for only a short peakKenaf image because July and August hardly ever have the rainfall to keep them green and growing. So, for now and despite much research, we do not have any dryland legumes that we feel are guaranteed. However, some production systems, such as wildlife plots, that can absorb the financial losses associated with occasional failures can still risk seeding these annuals following good soil preparation.

Annual includes:
Kenaf can be a productive, drought-tolerant
annual forage although cattle find it initially unpalatable.
The research results we have included:
  • Muir, J.P. 2001. Effect of dairy compost application, variety and stand age on kenaf forage yield, nitrogen content and phosphorus uptake. Agron. J. 93:1169-1173.
  • Muir, J.P. 2002. Effect of dairy compost application and stand age on forage kenaf variety fiber concentration and in sacco disappearance. Crop Science 42:248-254.
  • Muir, J.P. Forage and seed production from annual and short-lived perennial warm-season legumes fertilized with dairy compost. Crop Science 42:897-904.
Perennial Summer Legumes
Perennial summer legumes are even more difficult to establish than the annuals. This is because they are generally small seeded, making seedlings very weak, slow to establish and susceptible to even short periods of drought. They also don´t compete very well with volunteer weedy grasses or established coastal. However, once established, these legumes have the advantage of producing good forage early in the warm season and the capacity to put down deep taproots to reach sub-soil moisture during drought. For example, they are more likely to keep their leaves and produce a seed crop during July and August than the annuals, whose roots are not as deep.

We are currently looking at native perennial legumes for those interested in re-establishing prairie and woodland vegetation to what it was before cattle over-grazed much of the Cross Timbers. For more details on these, see our native legume page.
Neptunia Lutea image
Yellow puff neptunia (Neptunia lutea) produces
abundant seed for game birds.


Some of the few perennial legumes now available are: We are conducting quite a bit of research on these legumes, but little of it is publishable due to stand failures, even in experimental plots. The few publications that we do have are:
  • Muir, J.P., J. Taylor, and S.M. Interrante. Herbage and seed from native perennial herbaceous legumes of Texas. J. Range Manage. (submitted).
  • Muir, J.P., W.D. Pitman. Establishment of Desmanthus spp. in existing grass stands. Native Plant J. 5:5-13.
  • Bow, J.R., J.P. Muir, and T.J. Butler. 2003. Native and introduced perennial legumes for range reinforcement in north-central Texas. USA. Pp 1345-1348 proc. VII International Rangeland Congress, 26 July-1 August, 2003. Durban, South Africa. On CD.
Links to:   Winter Legumes,  Winter Grasses,  Summer Legumes:  Dryland - Irrigation,  Summer Grasses:  Dryland - Irrigation
|  Ag Programs   |  Center Information   |  Faculty & Staff   |  TAES - Research   |  TCE - Extension   |  Weather  |
[ State of Texas Homepage | Privacy Policy | Open Records Policy | Copyright Infringement | Required Links | Statement of Purpose ]
 Copyright ©2009 · The Texas A&M System · Research & Extension Center - Stephenville, Texas 76401 · 254.968.4144
 Contact the Webmaster at: stephenville@ag.tamu.edu
Valid HTML 4.01 TransitionalValid CSS!