In many parts of Europe there has been a net decline in the use of forage legumes since the 1980s, despite the reputed value of legumes for low-input livestock production systems. The political environment within which livestock farming in much of Europe operates (Common Agricultural Policy) is shifting the balance of economic advantage towards legumes and away from high usage of inorganic fertilizer. This has already been found for legume and grass-legume silages when compared with grass silages with a potential economic gain for farmers averaging 137 ha )1 , corresponding to an annual benefit for the European livestock farming sector of as much as 1300 million. Recent literature has shown that legume-based grazing systems have the ability to reduce environmental problems by increasing the efficiency of N use and by avoiding a high transient surplus of soil mineral N. From the perspective of livestock nutrition, when forage legumes contain moderate levels of secondary compounds, such as condensed tannins and flavonoids, they offer considerable advantages including increased efficiency of N utilization within the digestive tract, reduced incidence of bloat hazard and higher resilience to parasites.Nevertheless, these benefits are partially counterbalanced in both temperate and Mediterranean regions by difficulties in establishment, maintenance and management under grazing. To gain knowledge on mixed grass-legume pastures, further research is required on: (i) the development of sustainable systems of livestock production which can maintain sward persistence and agricultural production under environmental stress; (ii) increasing knowledge of soil-plant-animal relations for a wide range of leguminous species, and under different soil types and climatic situations; and (iii) the benefits for consumers of food produced from low-input livestock production systems.

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The effects of restricted time allocation (2, 4 or 6 h/day) to pasture and grazing day (Day 1, initial; Day 4, intermediate; Day 7, final) on feeding behaviour, intake and performance were assessed in Sarda dairy ewes, rotationally grazing Italian ryegrass plots for 7 days, with 21 days of regrowth. A randomised block design with two replicates per access time was used with six groups of six ewes each. The ewes were supplemented daily with 400 g/head of a commercial concentrate at milking, 300 g/head of lupin after grazing and 700 g/head of ryegrass hay overnight. Pasture variables, feeding behaviour, herbage and supplement DM intake, and milk yield and composition were measured on 12 days (4 per target grazing day). Plot average data were analysed by a bifactorial model with interaction, which was not significant. Sward height and herbage mass decreased between Day 1 and Day 4 (P < 0.05). Leaf area index dropped from Day 1 to Day 7 (P < 0.05). Eating time, as proportion of access time, and intake rate were higher in 2 h/day groups than in the others (P < 0.05). Nevertheless, herbage and total intake were higher in 6 h/day than in 2 h/day groups, being 4 h/day groups intermediate (P < 0.05). Herbage intake decreased with grazing period (P < 0.05). Fat normalised milk yield was higher in 6 h/day groups than in the others (P < 0.05) and in Day 1 and Day 4 than in Day 7 (P < 0.05). To conclude, time restriction below 6 h/day and pasture depletion, in terms of herbage quality, constrained intake and performance of rotationally grazing dairy ewes.

Seasonal changes in herbage mass and herbage quality of legume-based swards under grazing by sheep or cattle were investigated at four locations in climatically different zones of Europe: Sardinia (Italy), southern France, northern Germany and south-west England (UK). At each location standard treatments were applied to legumes typical of species widely used in each locality: Medicago polymorpha in Italy, Medicago sativa in France, and Trifolium repens in Germany and in UK. At each site comparisons were made of two other legumes: Trifolium subterraneum and Hedysarum coronarium in Italy, Onobrychis sativa and Trifolium incarnatum in France, Trifolium pratense and Lotus corniculatus in Germany, and Trifolium ambiguum and L. corniculatus in UK. Legumes were sown in mixture with locally appropriate companion grasses, and measurements were made over two or three grazing periods. In Italy M. polymorpha swards gave the greatest herbage mass in grazing period 1 but H. coronarium was more persistent. At the French site all legumes established poorly with no significant herbage mass differences between treatments. At both the UK and German sites L. corniculatus maintained a high proportion of legume in the sward; T. repens showed poor persistence under continuous sheep grazing in UK but persisted under cattle grazing in Germany, while T. ambiguum was slow to establish in the UK, and T. pratense proved to be of comparable herbage mass to the standard T. repens-based sward in the last year of the experiment. The concentration of crude protein and in vitro digestibility of organic matter in the dry matter of herbage showed greater withinseason variation than between treatments at each site. It is concluded that, in addition to currently used species, legume-based swards containing H. coronarium, O. sativa and L. corniculatus all have potential to contribute to forage production for low-input grazing and their use merits further consideration in systems of livestock production in Europe.