Holy sweet clover, batman!

[Tap]

I assume this is sweet clover.
We drove from Pa to Montana and the farther west we got, the more wide spread the stuff was.
It seems like cattle eat it because in pastures with cattle the stuff was well controlled, but just over the fence, it was a thick monoculture. Apparently, the wild critters aren't eating sweet clover.
After seeing how aggressive this stuff is, I will make sure I keep a close control on any that I see on my property. Everything yellow in these pics is what I'm assuming is sweet clover. Solid fields of the stuff could often be seen for more than a couple miles in the distance, and it also lined the roadsides for miles, upon miles, on end.
Be careful with this stuff.
These pics were taken about 50 miles south of Great Falls MT,
but we saw fields like this in WY, SD, and Iowa.

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[Mennoniteman]

Sweet clover is often biennial and flourishes every other year, with the off year being way less spectacular. If it's an invasive plant it's not nearly as bad and useless as most invasives, with wildlife grazing, flowers for bees, soilbuilding and erosion prevention characteristics, and can be controlled by mowing and tillage. It also looks much nicer than ragweed.

 

[Native Hunter]

Wow, that is amazing.

 

[Drycreek]

I saw some of that in WY, and had no idea that it was sweet clover. Must not be a favorite of deer or antelope as there were plenty around and it was just like your pics, virtually untouched.

 

[Mennoniteman]

I saw some of that in WY, and had no idea that it was sweet clover. Must not be a favorite of deer or antelope as there were plenty around and it was just like your pics, virtually untouched.

Looking at the pics, do you think there's enough deer and antelope in the whole state of WY to clean up all those plants if they liked it?

 

[Drycreek]

Looking at the pics, do you think there's enough deer and antelope in the whole state of WY to clean up all those plants if they liked it?

Probably not, but I doubt it would be flourishing like that if anything liked it.

 

[dogghr]

Wow what a bloom. SC is like alfalfa, palpable early growth but becomes stemmy as it reaches bloom stage. What you see is your typical western open range overgrazing that is so prominent there. Eating all the good stuff, allowing an invasive to overcome the natural grasslands. What you should be seeing is a prairie grass landscape as oppose to this spectacle. Poor management of farmer and government.
Feeding too much in cattle causes bloating and possible death. Even feeding harvested baled that is not properly dried or gets wet after drying can cause problems in cattle when fed. It does produce large amounts of N. And bees love it. But they love thistle also.
Some of the most abused grazed land I've seen is my travels of western states.

 

[SwampCat]

My bees sure would like to be sitting in the middle of that. A lot of the bee keepers with thousands of hives that do the pollination contracts in the almonds, citrus, and apples, summer their bees in the Dakotas and montana to put on honey in the sweet clover