The cost of fertilizer has been extremely high over the past year. Small farmers with limited resources have struggled to fertilize their hay and pasture fields. So one alternative might be sowing their fields with lespedeza for higher forage production with out using commercial fertilizers.

Some sixty years ago farmers used lespedeza as a pasture supplement for their cattle or other grazing animals because commercial fertilizers weren't available, or farmers didn't have the cash flow to buy commercial fertilizer.

By trying something that worked in the past might work again because of today's fertilize prices.

The Wayne County Agriculture Extension Service consisting of KSU and UK personnel are doing 9 different demonstration plots containing 1 to 4 acres each on small and limited resource farms to see if lespedeza could be a pasture supplement on low fertility soils.

The farmers seeded twenty to twenty five pounds of lespedeza seed per acre. They used several different planting methods. Some frost / freeze seeded lespedeza in mid February, while others farmers used a field harrow to cover the lespedeza seed to make good soil contact. Others used a small disk on their pasture fields to create a better seed bed for the lespedeza seed.

If 1 or 2 more tons of forage per acre could be produced, the benefits would be the additional forage at $75.00 per ton, allowing farmers to have more grazing animals per acre or purchasing less hay for their small farms.

If the price of fertilizer returns to lower prices commercial fertilizers may be the most economical.