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To: paul61 who wrote (582)	9/18/2005 11:46:25 AM
From: Slagle	Respond to of 219739

Paul Re: "Alfalfa" It is a legume like soybeans and has nitrogen fixing root nodules. But I know from experience that on really nitrogen poor uplands even alfalfa requires nitrogen fertilizer. My handbook shows an application rate for nitrogen poor soils. And it requires lots of phosphate and potash as do soybeans in certain soils. If the idea is to scale up world agriculture, even using "switchgrass" ethanol to meet current needs there is not enough phosphate or potash in the world either. Over the years alfalfa will build up some nitrogen in the soil. We took advantage of this with some upland corn years ago. But if it is like soybeans, this will only help for maybe one crop, then you are back to normal nitrogen application rates. Farmers do this already in some cases, to rotate corn with soybeans and I suppose alfalfa. But to get any benefit you need to have several soybean crops first before rotating to corn. We used another legume, sericea lespedeza, to rehabilitate eroded upland, but I don't think it fixes much nitrogen. Slagle