Spring wheat (Triticum spp.) cannot be grown profitably following conventional cropping practices in much of the U.S. Great Plains.� The development and adoption of ley farming, where wheat is rotated with legume pasture, enhanced economic profitability and environmental sustainability of grain production in Australia. A project was begun in 1999 to determine if ley farming could be adopted in southwestern North Dakota. Results of small-plot field experiments identified birdsfoot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus L.) as having the greatest near-term potential for self-regenerating legume pasture in rotation with wheat of the 30 legume species that were considered. Large (1-ha) plots of birdsfoot trefoil were established in a 27-ha field experiment where a wheat-birdsfoot trefoil ley system is being compared with rotations of wheat with alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) and wheat with pea (Pisum sativum L.). �The legume phase in the wheat-birdsfoot trefoil and wheat-alfalfa rotations is grazed while grain is harvested in the wheat phase.� Both crops in the wheat-pea rotation are harvested for grain.� Preliminary results of this project suggest that wheat and livestock enterprises can be integrated to form flexible agricultural systems by ley farming in southwestern North Dakota and similar regions.� Additional research is needed so that the soil-N and pest control benefits, along with wheat yield enhancements, provided by ley farming in Australia can be duplicated in the U.S. Great Plains.�

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