Dry matter accumulation and sheep grazing preference of six winter active annual legumes

Winter active legumes are suited to the mild winter areas of New Zealand, where they provide high quality forage in late winter and early to mid-spring. Six winter active annual legumes, persian clover, balansa clover, sweet clover, hybrid serradella, subterranean clover, and Medicago truncatula, were sown in a randomised complete block design with four replicates. Their dry matter (DM) accumulation and grazing preference to young sheep were measured every 3-6 weeks from sowing on 6 April 2000 until 24 October 2000. Total ungrazed DM production ranged from 5 500 kg/ha (sweet clover) to 9 300 kg/ha (balansa clover) over this period. The seasonal pattern of growth varied significantly between species, as did hogget grazing preference, with persian, balansa, and subterranean clover most preferred. These six plant species are capable of producing large amounts of high quality dry matter, but at all grazings, preference was extreme (measured by the number of sheep preferring to graze any one of the species when given a choice of all six), which may indicate the limited usefulness of some species. Key words: accumulative yield, grazing preference, Medicago truncatula, Melilotus albus, Ornithopus sativus x compressus, seasonal growth, sheep, Trifolium balansae, Trifolium respinatum, Trifolium subterraneum, winter active legumes