Soil Health and Pasture Ecosystem Improvement from a Diverse Mixture of Cool-season Species Overseeded on a Warm-season Perennial Grass Pasture

Ecology concepts indicate that pastures of high species diversity can be more functional and potentially more productive than those of monocultures or simple two-species mixtures. Short term experiments have typically not confirmed superior forage or grazing livestock production of such complex mixtures. This project will introduce the concept of such multiple-species pasture mixtures for use in the southeastern U.S. and demonstrate realistic short-term beneficial effects. A complex pasture mixture of cool-season species on a commercial beef cattle operation will be established by over-seeding warm-season perennial grass pasture in October. Establishment and production of this mixed stand will be monitored with pasture areas which naturally develop differing stand composition used as reference areas to compare effects of species complexity on measures of soil health. Cumulative effects of diverse species mixtures in repeated years on subsequent warm-season grass productivity and soil characteristics will be assessed. Environmental effects anticipated from diverse pasture species, compared to nitrogen-fertilized grass monocultures, include biological nitrogen fixation, enhanced sub-soil nutrient uptake, increased nutrient uptake efficiency, reduced fertilizer requirements, reduced weed pressure, enhanced pollinator Habitat, increased soil microbial biomass and diversity and increased soil organic matter providing carbon sequestration.