People often ask me, “What is the best species to plant for pasture?” What a loaded question! When prodded, they tell me they want a plant that will be extremely productive, will maintain high quality for 365 days a year, will not require fertilizer, will grow in severe drought, will have no insect or disease problems, will be well adapted to their poor soil, and, oh yeah, it has to be cheap.
There is no such species. If there were, this would be a very short chapter and this entire country would be covered with that plant. It is not quite so simple. There are thousands of species that have merit in a pasture situation somewhere, and obviously some have more merit than others in your own situation.
The following part describes many common species of pasture plant throughout much of the temperate regions around the world, and in some of the semitropical areas as well, and my recommendations on the situations in which they have the most merit.