Water-efficient clover fixes soil nitrogen, provides winter forage crop

The high yield and excellent protein content of ‘Multicut’ berseem clover make it a useful winter forage and cover crop option on Valley and foothill land where supplemental irrigation is available. This variety is a winter-and-spring annual that produces five or six cuttings from January to June if planted in October. Timing of the winter harvests is weather-dependent. Water use by berseem is about the same as for annual ryegrass pasture or oats grown for hay. Variety and nitrogen-fixation trials have been conducted at Davis since 1983.

The help of Richard Caldwell, Lawrence Larsen, R. S. Loomis, Helena Marques, Dan Pantone, and Richard Snyder is gratefully acknowledged. Cultural practice recommendations for berseem clover were reported in California Agriculture in September 1987. Some of the nitrogen fixation data were published previously in the Journal of Agronomy and Crop Science 264:202–207, 2990.