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.