The need for late-summer nitrogen application on fescue clover pastures should be evaluated in terms of the forage needs of each specific operation. Forage legumes can be used to economically improve forage yield and quality of tall fescue pastures. Red clover is an excellent legume species to frost seed or no-till seed into existing tall fescue stands every two years. Annual lespedeza is also an option in southern Ohio. Introducing legumes into tall fescue can reduce the need for nitrogen fertilizer, improve forage quality, and dilute the toxic effects of endophyte-infected tall fescue. Including legumes in a fescue pasture can reduce or eliminate the fescue toxicity. Fescue toxicity problems are increased with heavy nitrogen applications (Johnson, 1985).
Research in Maryland has demonstrated greater animal gains on fescue-clover pastures in the fall compared with pure tall fescue fertilized with nitrogen. But nutritive value of a legume-dominant sward will deteriorate more rapidly with freezing temperatures than a fescue dominant sward; therefore, stockpiled tall fescue-clover stands should be grazed earlier than pure tall fescue. Late-summer nitrogen applications on fescue-clover pastures can be used to increase carrying capacity to stimulate more tall fescue growth. Missouri research demonstrated that red clover persists well in fescue pastures receiving late summer nitrogen applications, provided nitrogen is not applied in the spring. Some balance in acres of N-fertilized tall fescue and tall fescue-legume mixtures would appear more appropriate than only one or the other (Matches, 1979).