Improvement of Rose Clover Winter Forage Production

Rose clover (Trifolium hirtum All.) is a winter annual forage legume that has potential for increased use in the U.S. southern region. New cultivars of rose clover are needed with the combination of cold tolerance, winter forage production and full bloom date of late April. Crosses were made between two early flowering cultivars and one late flowering rose clover cultivar. The F2 and F3 generations from these crosses were evaluated in northeast Texas for winter growth, cold damage and date of flowering. Fourteen F3 lines, out of 37 selected F2 parents, showed large increases (\u3e100%) in plant size on 9 Feb., relative to the late flowering rose clover parent

Establishment and management of Apache arrowleaf clover

Last updated: 6/1/200

Breeding Forage Legumes to Complement Warm Season Perennial Grass Pastures in the US Southern Region

Perennial warm-season grass pastures, primarily bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon [L] Pers..)) and bahia grass (Paspalum notatum Flugge)),, cover approximately 12 million hectares in the US southern region (US Census of Agric. 2002). These grasses are used for grazing, hay production or both. Bermuda grass and bahia grass are dormant from late fall until early spring with some variation in total dormancy period depending on seasonal conditions and latitude. Cool-season forage legumes can be over-seeded in the fall before the perennial grasses become dormant, providing winter grazing and nitrogen for the pasture system. The legumes sown in these grasslands are often acid tolerant species from the Trifolium genus as the predominant soils of the US southern region are sandy, acidic and highly leached. Legume breeding programs have been in place for 30 years with the general objective to develop more reliable forage legume cultivars to co-exist in these perennial grassland systems. Our improvement programs have addressed such problems as virus and fungal disease susceptibility (Pemberton et al. 1989; Pemberton et al. 1998) in arrowleaf clover (Trifolium vesiculosum Savi.), poor seedling regeneration (Evers and Smith, 2006) in crimson clover (T. incarnatum L.) and low persistence in white clover (T. repens L.). These research efforts are further described below

Legislation 1920.07

Last updated: 6/12/200

Insect pollinators boost the market price of culturally important crops: holly, mistletoe and the spirit of Christmas

Animal pollination is a vital ecological process in both natural and agricultural ecosystems. Economic valuation studies have demonstrated that pollination services may underpin a significant proportion of global crop market outputs. However these assessments are probably under-estimates because they have rarely included non-food crops, for which very few data are currently available. In particular, culturally symbolic plants have received no attention. Here we show that pollinators have considerable economic benefits to sales of European holly and mistletoe, two seasonal cultural crops that are almost wholly dependent upon insect pollinators for the production of ornamental berries. Analyses of a time series of auction records spanning 11 years indicates that wholesale prices paid for holly with berries are twice those paid for the crop without berries, whilst mistletoe with berries sells for almost three times the price of the crop lacking fruit. The benefits of this insect pollination ecosystem service to this market are therefore considerable. These findings demonstrate that pollinators can play a significant role in adding value to crops that provide resources other than food. In the future such crops should be included in assessments of regional and global value of animal pollination to increase the accuracy of assessments of the value of pollination as an ecosystem service. Our results also support arguments for continued efforts to conserve pollinator diversity and abundance in agro-ecological systems, not least for their contribution as providers of ecosystem services

Animal Performance from Winter Pastures Using Fertilizer or Cowpeas and Clover for the Nitrogen Source

Last updated: 6/9/200

Evaluation of Nematode Resistance in Lablab

Last updated: 6/12/200