Grass and Clover Can Provide More Than Animal Feed

Growing leys—grass and clover—is nothing new in Swedish agriculture. But in the arable farming regions dominated by cereal production, leys are less common. One reason is that there needs to be a market for what is harvested.

This was one of the starting points when researchers at Chalmers began exploring the potential of green biorefineries, where grass and clover can be processed into several different products.

The findings are published in the journal GCB Bioenergy.

"From a cultivation and soil perspective, introducing grass and clover leys into a crop rotation dominated by cereals has a range of positive effects on both the soil and the environment. Farmers are well aware that growing grass and clover improves soil quality, but the challenge is finding a market for this biomass resource," says Christel Cederberg, professor of sustainable agricultural systems at Chalmers.

One opportunity became apparent when Danish researchers began extracting protein from fresh grass in pilot facilities.