Summer is here, which means the cows get to eat the Medicago sativa. That’s lucerne, alfalfa or luzerne, to us regular folks.

In spring we make hay from some of the lucerne paddocks, but its main use is as summer grazing. When the grass has stopped growing, lucerne keeps on going for a few weeks more. It has long roots which get water from deeper in the soil.

There’s a lot of cocksfoot seeded in there too. Our summer has been mild with rain so the grasses are continuing to grow when normally they’ve stopped for the summer, so there’s just plenty of grass everywhere. 

The lucerne is mature with lots of flowers, It isn’t at its peak of quality, but still very good forage and the cows go nuts for it.

Eat up, cows.

And there’s nothing like lucerne grazing for putting me in the mood for some late-80s jangly girl-pop!