Ben Tracy, a Plant Ecologist, and Matt Sanderson, a Research Agronomist, surveyed the plant diversity of 73 pastures in seven northeast states over the 1997 and 1998 summers. The researchers found that pastures were more diverse than expected, averaging 32 plant species per pasture. Several weed species were found, but the weeds were a small proportion of the pasture area. A typical pasture had seven different grass species and four different legume species. The researchers suggest that this forage diversity is in the range that will benefit farmers both ecologically and economically.
Diversity refers to the number of different plant species in a particular area.
A diverse pastures may reduce the spread of pests, improve forage yields over the growing season and increase pasture resistance to disturbances like drought. For example, maintaining species in pasture that are most productive during the 'summer slump' helps to even out late season forage yields. However before researchers make any recommendations on how to manage pastures for diversity, they must first learn how diverse these northeast pastures really are. With this general objective in mind, Tracy and Sanderson set out in 1997 and 1998 to survey the diversity of plants across various farms in the northeast. In the seed bank study, the researchers found that most of the existing seed in pasture soils was from bluegrass and white clover.