Research progress of white clover forage cultivation technsiques based on bibliometrics

To explore the development context and research hotspot of white clover (Trifolium repens) cultivation research and turn from subjective judgment to objective measurement, this study quantitatively analyzes literature ranging from 1980 to 2022 year on white clover cultivation research from Web of Science and the China National Knowledge Infrastructure using Vosviewer and CiteSpace software. The results showed that the number of papers on white clover cultivation showed a trend of “slow in the initial stage, rapid in the middle stage, and decreasing in the later stage.” The Northwest University of Agriculture and Forestry Science and Technology, Sichuan Agricultural University, and Gansu Agricultural University were the leading institutions in China research on this topic. As research on white clover cultivation has matured, the research topics have gradually shifted from forage resource development and ecological adaptability to orchard grass growing technology with three dominant research trends. Improving the forage yield and developing grassland industry are the research basis of white clover, with New Zealand and other countries playing an important role in this field. The future research focuses of white clover cultivation are “soil microbial diversity”, “interplanting grass in orchard” , and “orchard carbon and nitrogen cycle.”