IN THE FIELD
Poor Man ’ s Lucerne , Sericea lespedeza
Low-cost legume pasture
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Sericea lespedeza , also known as “ poor man ' s lucerne ,” is fast gaining popularity among smallholders who require low-cost legume pastures . Unlike lucerne , Sericea does not require costly soil mineral corrections ~ this is how it earned the “ poor man ” label . Sericea lespedeza is a shrubby , deciduous perennial plant about 0,5-1,5m tall . It is a drought tolerant , nonbloating legume , and a prolific seed producer . Individual stems may produce in excess of 1 000 seeds , with 340 – 960 kg of seed produced per hectare . However , germination rates are low , ranging from 10 – 20 %. Sericea lespedeza offers numerous advantages as a forage crop . It is droughttolerant , non-bloating , resistant to diseases and rarely attacked by insects . Mature plants are quite competitive with grasses . It is much more tolerant of soil acidity than most other legumes and is also very
tolerant of low fertility . Forage yields of sericea are good , and forage quality is better than most warm season perennial grasses . It is a surprisingly economical forage crop to grow due to thefactthatitdoesnot require any nitrogen fertilizer.
It has also been well documented that sericea is an excellent soil builder . It has been shown to increase the nitrogen content of associated grass . S lespedeza will grow in almost any soil , doing well in sandy and loamy soils . Sericea is deep-rooted but also does well on shallow soils with drainage restrictions . Tannin is the compound that confers the non-bloating characteristic to lespedeza , but it also decreases palatability and digestibility . Grazing forages high in tannins or adding purified Condensed Tannin ( CT ) to the diet has been shown to reduce numbers of parasite eggs in sheep and goat faeces . Feeding hay of
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