Skip to main content
ARS Home » Midwest Area » Madison, Wisconsin » U.S. Dairy Forage Research Center » Environmentally Integrated Dairy Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #399358
Research Project: Improving Sustainability of Dairy and Forage Production Systems for the Upper Midwest

Location: Environmentally Integrated Dairy Management Research

Title: The benefits of forage legumes go beyond nitrogen fixation

Author
item Jaramillo, David

Submitted to: Forage Focus
Publication Type: Popular Publication
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/1/2022
Publication Date: 12/1/2022
Citation: Jaramillo, D.M. 2022. The benefits of forage legumes go beyond nitrogen fixation. Forage Focus. December 2022, pg. 18-19.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Nutrient cycling is vital for sustaining the productivity of pasture systems. Nitrogen plays an important role in soil carbon sequestration, therefore increasing nitrogen cycling in grazing systems will lead to increased soil carbon accumulation. The use of forage legumes is an alternative to nitrogen fertilizer use in pasture systems. Legumes have the capacity to associate with microbes to fix atmospheric nitrogen. The benefits of legume inclusion in grazing systems go beyond biological nitrogen fixation. Two important aspects include the provision of pollinator habitat and altering soil microbial composition. These novel aspects provide evidence that legume inclusion in grazing systems is an important practice to improve the sustainability of livestock production.