BOOM LUSERN Supplement (4)

WWW.BOOMLUSERN.CO.ZA • NOVEMBER 2011 1

• The "living haystack"• Low risk high potential fodder• Same nutritional value as alfalfa lucerne, but without risk

of bloat or spoilage • 100mm of rain = 1 ton of edible material • Typically increases carrying capacity by about 10 times • Evergreen perennial tree that lives for 60 to 80 years • Harvests nitrogen from the atmosphere• Resistant to drought, cold and fi re

GO TO WWW.TREELUCERNE.CO.ZA AND READ ALL ABOUT THIS WONDER FODDER PLANT.

Tree Lucerne explainedTree Lucerne or Tagasaste is a wonder fodder tree

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Tree Lucerne is a deep-rooted, perennial, leguminous, fodder shrub suitable for growth on well drained soils. It is a strategic feed source during dry months or when annual pasture is of poor feed value and can be useful for soil erosion control and stabilising water tables.

• It has the same nutritional value as normal Alfalfa Lucerne, but without the risk of bloat. It grows as a shrub, evergreen, perennial, allowing for a 12 month nutritional plane.

• Tree Lucerne (Tagasaste) has no negative toxins and cattle can be set stocked on it, with mass gains in the order of 1 kg per day. Unlike normal Alfalfa Lucerne, there is no risk to the animal, or to the fodder (unexpected rain).

• The plant puts between 80 and 300N with of nitrogen into the soil per hectare per annum because it is a legume. This stimulates the grass growth between rows and equals a saving of R1 000 to R3 000 per ha in urea fertiliser.

• Tree Lucerne lives for 60-80 years. This means that once it is established, a Tree Lucerne orchard will yield an annual production for the full 12 months of the year, with ultra low input costs and low effort. Healthy and fertile animals come out the other end.

• The carrying capacity of grazing lands (for beef cattle) increases by roughly ten fold when planted with Tree Lucerne. This is typically increases the output from veld that normally yields one ton per hectare to roughly 8 to 10 tons/ha of eatable Tree Lucerne material. The limiting factor is water. Tree Lucerne yields roughly one ton of eatable green feed material for every 100mm of water (whether rain, irrigation, in the soil profi le, or a perched water table-in which case Tree Lucerne produces at roughly double the annual rainfall). All this, all year, every year, for 60-80 years, with just a single establishment.

What makes Tree Lucerne so wonderful?

Tree Lucerne performs best in deep sand or well drained soils/loams with pH 4 – 8.

Note that Tree Lucerne (Tagasaste) is a desert plant able to survive the typical desert temperature swings from extreme cold to extreme heat with very little moisture. Once established it is ultra hardy. Mature plants can stand intensive cold up to -9°C. At colder temperatures only the tip of the new shoots will die off. New growth starts when the weather improves. Young seedlings are vulnerable to frost when just planted.

The minimum water requirement is around 200mm per year, with the maximum around 3500mm per year (typically drip irrigation). It is commercially viable from around 300mm annual rainfall.

Beef up carrying capacityIt is recommended to systematically establish up to 10% of the property with Tree Lucerne, in order to double your carrying capacity with livestock.

The ability to rest grass and veld at critical times is a big help. Livestock remain in condition in and out of season, and start off in the best possible condition when spring breaks. This positively affects fertility and health.

The main benefi t is a 12 month growing season to your animals.

Habitat of Tree Lucerne



Underground irrigation

Tree Lucern is able to provide a 12 month nutritional plane to your animals because the roots, rhizombium and fungi provide the plant with a 12 month nutritional plane. It is able to “mine” water and nutrients in the earth that other plants can not, and that is what puts money in your pocket.

Tree Lucerne assists with hydraulic lift in soil. This takes place when the 10 meter deep taproot extract moisture which is then leaked out via the horizontal feeder roots (up to 15 meters away from the plant).

This accomplishes “underground irrigation” that recycles and wash out nutrients. This is then made available to the ecosystem closer to the surface. In places with a fertilizer history (such as old lands) the historic phosphates and nutrients that have leached down into the soil/clay are recycled and made productive again.

The question is no longer that nutrients and water are available in the top 30 cm of soil to the grass roots, but what water and nutrients are available in the soil profi le 10 meters deep. That is a different scenario altogether, setting new standards in production and profi tability.

Grazing strategy

The recommended row spacing is 10 meters apart, with a plant every 2 to 3 meters in the (single or double) row. This yields a den-sity of roughly 500 to 1 000 Lucerne Trees per hectare.

The inter-row is typically a perennial grass like Smutsfi nger or Eragrostis. These pe-rennial grasses outperform as a companion fodder because of the roughly 100N nitrogen that the Tree Lucerne harvest from the atmosphere and put into the soil.

The recommend grazing strategy is intensive grazing in a rotational system, with up to 1 000 sheep or 40 cows per ha in a single block for 3 to 4 weeks.

This ensure that the Tree Lucerne do not grow away from the animals and it takes on a short shrubby broccoli form factor. Regrowth depends on rainfall and water, but could be in as little as just six weeks, after which it can be grazed again. With driplines this period can be shorter.The plant is easiest established as a seedling, and may be lightly grazed for the fi rst time after just 10 months. This encourages coppicing. It is commercially viable from the second year after establishment. Cattle can be set stocked on Tree Lucerne for 12 months of the year as they don’t re-move every single leaf like sheep do. Sheep has to be removed every 6 weeks in order to prevent them from stripping the bark from the Tree Lucerne and killing the plant. Maximum growth takes place when palatability and nutrition is at its highest, which is early in spring and early summer.

During autumn and winter the Tree Lucerne has to be supplemented. This require-ment is in order to be able to metabolise the 25% protein of the Tree Lucerne. Provide a lick or a energy supplement to help make more protein available in a digestible format to the animal. The plant has 15-30% protein and roughly 70% of the plant can be eaten.


Want to know more?

Go to www.treelucerne.co.za and read all about this wonder fodder plant in English or Afrikaans. Look at our Download Section for Planting Tips and Advice, best practice. More details and case studies on our website.

It costs R2 000 per hectare to establish large scale plantings of 50 hectares or more Seedling are to be collect close to Bothaville and Nampo, or Bultfontein, in the Free State. Coordinate transport with us. We provide inoculated plants and seed.

For orders of R10 000 and more phone Justice Malanot on 082 324 5982 or [email protected]. We are also open to Strategic Relationships and projects in South Africa and neighbouring countries.

Benefi cial roots

The Rhizobium nodulate on the Tree Lucerne roots, are micro organisms that harvest nitrogen out of the atmosphere. It is then made available to your commercial fodder plants for free! This account for maximum grass and shrub growth from sustainable microbial soil action. It is a sustainable alternative to ureum fertilizer being mechanically spread on your pastures.

Mychorrhizal fungi grows into the roots of the Tree Lucerne. It increases the feeder network of the plant roots by up to 7 000 times. These Fungi collect water, nutrients and sought after compounds, which it trades with the plant in a symbiotic relationship in exchange for sugers and nitrogen. Mychorrhizal Fungi are able to extract moisture and water from material such as clay, which plants roots are not able to do.

It is the combination of underground irrigation, nitrogen fi xation and Mychorrhizal fungi that help to make the plant so rich in Protein (15% to 30%) for 12 months of the year, even in severe drought and water scarcity that would kill most other plants.

Planting methodPlant seed direct in the soil 1 to 2 cm deep, in the rip line or seedbed, or on top of a auger hole.

It is recommended that you use 10% of your seed and make your own seedlings, with which to plug and fi ll in any gaps that appear during establishment (due to pest, rabbit damage etc).

Limpopo, Ellisras:Paul van Niekerk 082 565 5993

Gauteng, Pretoria:Anel Pelser 078 621 5511(Specialising in Gauteng horse community)

Gauteng, Pretoria East:Frikkie van Schalkwyk 082 876 4694

Eastern Cape, Port Elizabeth:Robby de Beer 071 276 9498

Mpumalanga, Tzaneen:Leigh Dale 083 628 6138(delivers from Polokwane to Nelspruit)

Mpumalanga, Witrivier:Dries Lombard 082 851 2395Louis Wessels 083 660 8408

Free State, Bothaville:Anton Kordier 083 375 1537

Free State, Bultfontein:Michris Janse van Rensburg 073 454 4111

Tree Lucerne for Sale:Wonder Fodder plant for Livestock • 1 ton of eatable material for each 100mm of rain• Increases carrying capacity 10 fold• Evergreen Perennial living 60-80 years• Living Haystack• The same nutritional value as normal Alfalfa

Lucerne, but with zero risk of bloat and spoilage.• Puts 100N worth on Nitrogren into the soil for

free (per ha)• Drought and Fire Resistant• Prefer well drained soil or sand with PH of 4-8.• R1 per seed (min of 20 000).

Contact Justice Malanot on 082 3245982 and www.treelucerne.co.za

Before: Desert sand

After: the same camp!

8 • NOVEMBER 2011 • WWW.TREELUCERNE.CO.ZA

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BOOM LUSERN Supplement (4)