Thanks Loran. Clover/alfalfa seems like it would make more sense than having another grass species with corn but Dr Moore has found the opposite so far. Whatever they were doing was causing more yield loss from competition for sunlight/water/nutrients than they were getting back in groundcover and N fixation benefits. Researchers are thinking the trick to getting perennial groundcover to work with corn is to turn it brown early spring so it’s not messing with the red:far red light ratio. That only accounts for corn yield though. It doesn’t factor in forage/other benefits you might get with having full ground cover.

Maybe clover has a different effect on the red:far red ratio compared to other species. Hopefully someone will chime in if they have any info on that.