Purple prairie clover seed viability and germinability after passing through the digestive tracts of yearling steers

Abstract

Endozoochory by cattle has been considered an important method for population self-regeneration; however, the effects of cattle digestive tracts on the viability and germinability of purple prairie clover (Dalea purpurea Vent.), a native North American species, remain understudied. The experiment was conducted at the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Swift Current Research and Development Centre in the semiarid prairie of western Canada. Purple prairie clover seeds extracted from cattle dung pats were tested for germination and compared with uningested and scarified seeds from the same paddock. The germination percentage (within 200 d) of the ingested seeds was 16.5% ± 0.8%, two times higher after passing through digestive tracts than uningested seeds (8.3% ± 1.2%), while 76.6% ± 1.5% of ingested seeds remained dormant. As many as 92.4% ± 0.9% of purple prairie clover seeds survived digestion due to their high hard seed rate (90.5% ± 1.0%), which was lower than the uningested seeds by 6.9%. Therefore, cattle dispersing purple prairie clover seeds with high viability and germinability is a low-cost method to increase and rejuvenate purple prairie clover for late-season grazing pastures.