SWIFT CURRENT, Sask. – Federal researchers are optimistic about the potential of purple prairie clover to extend the grazing season and curb the growth of E. coli.
It is a native nitrogen-fixing legume that contains condensed tannins, said Allan Iwaasa, a ruminant and grazing management specialist at the Semiarid Agricultural Research Centre in Swift Current.
The tannins can improve protein use in cattle that graze on the plant and inhibit E. coli in manure.
“It does reduce E. coli shedding,” Iwaasa said during the Foraging into the Future conference in Swift Current. “This is a natural way of maybe reducing the spread of E. coli.”
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Purple prairie clover is a warm season, tap rooted, drought resistant plant that grows to 30 to 45 centimetres. It grows mainly in the southern part of Western Canada and Ontario.
Since 2001, researchers in Swift Current have been looking at the plant’s role in terms of drought tolerance, extended grazing and nutritional benefits. They have examined its use in continuous and deferred rotational grazing systems.
Because it has a July to September growth habit, it might add nutritional benefits after the cool season plants have begun declining. The tannins bind protein, which improves its use.
Iwaasa said it can be grazed at any time, and cattle have shown a preference for the flowers and seed heads.
Digestibility averages 50 to 65 percent from the vegetative to seed pod stages. Protein averages 12 to 20 percent during the same stages.
The condensed tannins research began in 2009 and will run until 2012.
Iwaasa said 2009 and 2010 results showed a reduction of 0157: H7 E. coli.
Research is also looking at purple prairie clover’s role in reducing methane gas emissions and improving feed efficiency.
The work at Swift Current was done on native pastures that contain the clover. Iwaasa said over time the amount of the plant has increased from less than five percent to about five to 10 percent of the pasture.
