Pasture Mixes

Pasture mixes, also known as pasture blends, consist of planting two or more forage plant species together as opposed to a single species. They offer many benefits over single-species plantings.

We commonly do a ‘rye clover mix’ consisting of but not limited to Perennial, Hybrid, Italian, Annual ryegrass and white clover.  It is used to oversow or undersow into existing pasture or damaged pasture to build it up and repair it for another season. Other pasture mix examples are custom regenerative mixes, and bushburn mixes.

These multi-species plantings mimic nature's prairies by providing a more diverse array of grasses and legumes. By planting a mix of species, the pasture can maximize use of soil nutrients, sunlight, and moisture.

While monoculture pastures were common historically, research over the past few decades has demonstrated the advantages of diverse plantings. Pasture mixes allow the strengths of one grass or legume to compensate for the weaknesses of another. They provide more balanced nutrition, greater yield potential, and increased resilience.

Some common components of forage mixes include grasses like ryegrass, cocksfoot, timothy, brome, and fescues; legumes like alfalfa, red clover, and birdsfoot trefoil; and broadleaf forbs like chicory and plantain. Popular mixes utilize 4-7 complementary species suited to the local growing conditions.

The use of multi-species pasture mixes continues to gain popularity among graziers seeking enhanced productivity and environmental benefits from their pasture. When designed and managed appropriately, pasture mixes can offer significant advantages over single-species plantings.

Improved Nutrition

Pasture mixes provide livestock with improved nutrition compared to single species pastures. The diverse mix of grasses, legumes, and forbs in a pasture mix offers a wider range of minerals, proteins, and nutrients than a monoculture pasture.

The inclusion of legumes like alfalfa, clover, and lespedeza provides higher protein content and balances the lower protein grasses. The mix of cool season and warm season grasses and forbs extends the grazing season and provides more consistent nutritional quality over a longer period. 

With diverse species that grow at different times, animals can take advantage of the most nutritious plants throughout the seasons. Cool season grasses offer the best nutrition in spring and fall while warm season species provide peak nutrition in summer. Ever-growing forbs fill in nutritional gaps between grass growth peaks.

The variety of roots systems in a mix also allows more complete use of nutrients across different soil layers. Grasses with shallow fibrous roots, legumes with taproots, and forbs with deep root systems access and make available nutrients from all soil levels.

Overall, the improved nutritional content from the diversity of plants in a pasture mix leads to better animal health, growth rates, and production. Livestock get balanced and complete nutrition across the full grazing season from the varied mix of plants, proteins, and minerals in a mixed pasture.

Increased Yield

Pasture mixes can significantly increase total forage yield compared to a single species pasture. This occurs for several reasons:

Planting a mix of productive grass and legume species takes advantage of the higher yield potential of multiple high-producing species. For example, mixing a top-yielding grass with a top-yielding legume like alfalfa can result in higher total production than either species alone.

Different pasture species have complementary growth habits and peak production periods. Cool-season grasses like timothy grow rapidly in spring and autumn while warm-season grasses like bermudagrass peak in summer. Legumes like clover grow well from spring to autumn. These staggered growth curves increase efficiency and total yield from a similar area.

The inclusion of nitrogen-fixing legumes like alfalfa and clover in pasture mixes provides natural soil fertility. As legumes fix atmospheric nitrogen, this nutrient is returned to the soil for use by the entire pasture community. This nitrogen-boost fuels increased grass growth and higher overall productivity.

By harnessing complementary growth habits, peak production periods, and nitrogen contributions, mixed-species pastures can achieve significantly higher total yield across the growing season compared to single-species plantings. This provides greater efficiency and productivity from the same land base.

Enhanced Palatability

Pasture mixes provide animals with a variety of plant species to choose from. This increased diversity prevents boredom and encourages steady grazing, as animals will selectively graze preferred species first. The inclusion of legumes like clover or alfalfa adds further diversity and palatability. Animals on diverse pasture mixes consume more dry matter per bite and spend more time grazing compared to monoculture pastures. The enhanced diet satisfaction keeps animals grazing steadily rather than taking a few bites and moving on. The result is higher voluntary intake, better nutrition, and improved animal performance. Pasture mixes lead to healthy, productive livestock by providing diverse, attractive forage species for grazing animals.

Improved Animal Health

Pasture mixes provide balanced nutrition that helps prevent nutrient deficiencies and toxicity issues. The diverse blend of grasses, legumes, and herbs supply a wide range of vitamins, minerals, and plant metabolites. This bio-diverse mix supports gut health by providing more variation to the rumen microbiome compared to a single forage diet. The complex plant compounds also bolster immune function.

Additionally, incorporating both grasses and legumes into a pasture mix can help reduce parasite loads. The tannins and other plant chemicals found in legumes have anti-parasitic properties. Rotational grazing between grass-dominant and legume-dominant paddocks helps break parasite life cycles. The diverse forages provide an unfavourable environment for parasites to thrive compared to a mono-culture pasture.

Overall, pasture mixes supply balanced nutrition, improve digestive function, enhance immunity, and decrease parasite issues - all contributing to better animal health. The nutritional and anti-parasitic benefits support health from the inside out.

Increased Resilience

Pasture mixes enable fields to better withstand weather fluctuations because the different species in the mix have varied growth seasons and peaks. This means that if there is extreme weather at a certain time that negatively impacts one species, other species in the mix will be able to compensate and continue growing. The varied seasonal growth also prevents large gaps in plant coverage which can leave fields susceptible to weed invasions.

With multiple productive grass and legume species in the mix, if one species experiences poor performance in a given year there are other productive species to compensate and maintain good overall pasture and animal performance. The increased plant diversity from multiple species fills niches and creates dense vegetation cover, reducing light to the soil surface which helps prevent weed invasions. This is a major benefit over monoculture pastures that leave fields much more vulnerable to weather variability and weed takeovers.

Pasture mixes provide resilience against unpredictable seasonal fluctuations and potential dips in productivity of individual species. The diversity buffers against risk while ensuring fields remain highly productive for grazing livestock.

Enhanced Sustainability

Pasture mixes offer significant sustainability benefits over conventional single-species pastures. The diverse mix of grasses, legumes, and herbs in a pasture mix can help fix nitrogen and sequester carbon in the soil. The deep root systems of the various species allow for more efficient use of nutrients and water. This reduces the need for synthetic fertilizers and irrigation. 

Additionally, pasture mixes provide resilience against pests, diseases, and weather fluctuations. This prevents the need for pesticides or fungicides. The mix of grazed and ungrazed species helps prevent overgrazing damage as well. Cattle will graze the tastiest grasses first, allowing the other species time to recover before being grazed again.

Overall, pasture mixes represent a more sustainable grazing system. They enhance soil health, reduce external inputs, and prevent degradation from overuse. Pasture mixes provide environmental benefits beyond livestock production as well. The biodiversity supports pollinators while protecting water and air quality. With careful planning and grazing management, pasture mixes enable sustainable livestock production for generations to come.

Implementation Tips

When establishing a pasture mix, it's important to carefully plan and execute the seeding process to set up the pasture for success. Here are some key tips:

Match Species to Conditions 

- Choose species that are well-suited to your climate, rainfall, and soil type. Warm season grasses, cool season grasses, Legumes like clover have lower fertility requirements. Customize the mix based on local conditions.

- Consider species' flood tolerance, drought resistance, etc. Select varieties that can withstand the typical environmental conditions in your region.

- Tailor the mix to your site's soil drainage, pH, salinity, etc. clover tolerates vs alfalfa grows best on well-drained land. Test soil to determine compatibility.

Balance Compatibility and Competitiveness

- Research how the selected species grow together. Some are highly competitive while others are more complementary. 

- Include both cool season and warm season grasses. This allows some plants to thrive in spring and fall while others peak in summer.

- Pair grasses with legumes. Legumes fix nitrogen to benefit neighbouring plants. 

- Use short, medium, and tall growth habits to optimize light interception and growth.

Follow Proper Seeding Rates

• Check recommended seeding rates for each species based on pure live seed. Adjust rates if mixing varieties.

• Account for growth habit, seed size, and competitiveness. Sow less of aggressive species and more of slower-establishing types.

• Seed grasses and legumes separately. Grass requires deeper planting and legumes need close contact with soil.

• Consider broadcast vs. drill planting methods. Drill seeding requires lower seeding rates than broadcast.

• For renovating existing pasture, slightly increase seeding rates to account for competition from established plants.

Potential Challenges

Switching to a pasture mix comes with some potential challenges to be aware of.

Higher Upfront Seed Cost 

The seed for a pasture mix is typically more expensive upfront compared to a single species. You need to purchase multiple types of seeds, so the total cost is higher. However, this extra cost is usually offset over time by the increased productivity and resilience of the mix.

Requires More Management Attention

Managing a diverse mix takes more knowledge and attentiveness than managing a monoculture. You'll need to learn the optimal care and harvest times for each species. And you'll want to watch for any single species becoming too dominant over time. 

Potential for Single Species to Dominate

In some cases, one or two species in the mix may thrive and crowd out other species. This reduces the diversity over time. Avoiding overgrazing and maintaining optimal soil fertility can help prevent any single species from becoming too aggressive. Occasional frost seeding, interseeding, or replanting may be required to restore diversity.

So while pasture mixes have great benefits, they do require more investment and effort compared to a monoculture. The increased inputs are usually justified by the potential for increased production, sustainability, and profits over the long term. But farmers should weigh the pros and cons and additional management considerations when transitioning to a diverse pasture system.

Conclusion

Pasture mixes provide a number of benefits that make them worth considering for most livestock farmers. By planting a diverse mix of grasses and legumes, farmers can improve nutrition, increase yields, enhance palatability, and support better animal health. The increased biodiversity also leads to greater resilience against weather fluctuations and diseases. 

Overall, incorporating pasture mixes can lead to a more sustainable and productive grazing system. The modest upfront investment is well worth it for the long-term rewards. While adjusting current farming practices takes effort, many farmers find the transition manageable with proper planning and preparation.  

For farmers interested in integrating pasture mixes, a wealth of online resources exists to help get started. With some careful research and planning, most livestock farmers can successfully adopt pasture mixes and start reaping the rewards.

 We offer custom mixes to suit the farm, management system or area.  Get in touch with us for advice on your next pasture mix.