DeLange Seed

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HAIRY VETCH:  Vicia villosa

            Hairy vetch is cold-hardy annual legume adapted over a wide area of the United States.  Hairy vetch tolerates poorly drained and acid soils much better than most other legumes.  Plants are vining with stems that attain lengths of two to six feet.  The stems bear pinnate leaflets and terminate in tendrils that wrap tightly around surrounding plants.  Purple flowers are borne in clusters and pods are elongated and compressed.  Seed is round or oval and grayish black in color.  The name hairy vetch is a misnomer as plants are nearly hairless.

            Hairy vetch seeds shatter quickly after pods mature.  However, it is fairly "soft-seeded" (having little or no seed dormancy) and does not dependably reseed and therefore should be replanted every year.

            Hairy vetch can increase carrying capacity and quality of grass forage substantially, as-well-as reduce the need for commercial nitrogen fertilizer.  With nitrogen fertilizer prices expected to escalate in price in coming years, hairy vetch usage will likely increase.

USE AND MANAGEMENT:

            Hairy vetch is widely utilized for pasture and hay.  In Kansas, hairy vetch is often seeded with winter rye or winter wheat for winter pasture.  The following spring this mixture is either grazed out, or cut for hay, haylage or silage.  Rye generally produces more forage in the fall than does wheat, however, wheat can provide up to two weeks longer grazing in the spring.  Hairy vetch used in this manner serves to increase both forage yield and quality.

            Likewise, hairy vetch can be seeded into permanent pasture to increase carrying capacity and forage quality.  In pasture situations, grazing of hairy vetch should not begin until the plants are at least six inches tall.  It should not be grazed lower than the lowest leaf axil as axillary buds will be removed, greatly slowing regrowth.  If hairy vetch is utilized for hay, the optimum yield and quality is obtained when cut in the early bloom stage.

            Recently, much attention has been given to using hairy vetch as a biological nitrogen producer for row crops.  In this system, hairy vetch is seeded in pure stands and is grazed through the winter and early spring.  It is then treated with an appropriate contact herbicide and corn or grain sorghum is no-tilled into the vetch.  Hairy vetch utilized in this manner can produce 80 to 100 lbs. nitrogen per acre for subsequent crops.