Tips for Legume Pasture - Lucerne

Lucerne and Merino’s go together like a horse and carriage; a wonderful working marriage!  Lucerne is the most productive of all perennial pastures legumes and it is hardy and persistent to boot.  

This explains why more land is planted to lucerne than any other perennial pasture legume in SA.  If lucerne did not have a bloat problem, there would be little need to use alternative perennial legumes.   Many farmers complain about grass invasion in their lucerne lands.  This is actually an indication that the soil is poorly mineralised.  Lucerne is particularly dependant upon calcium and phosphorous.  Liming to correct pH is most certainly no assurance that calcium levels in the soil will be built to optimize; very often they will fall far short of this all important mineral.  Huge – very costly and wasteful - applications of super phosphate are needed to build soil P to the desired level.  For this reason most farmers don’t apply sufficient P, consequently lucerne suffers from P hunger. This reduces its vigour, thus giving grass weeds the competitive edge.  In the long run, building P with rock phosphate is far more effective and less costly.  For top yields and the production of high quality lucerne, soil minerals should be fully balanced according to the Albrecht model.