Spoons, it's available online. However I actually only found out yesterday, Pav had kindly posted a link to this study (and a bunch of others, also out of Lille), in the library section. Check it out
here.
The study was of one producer, and two different pastures. Here's the relevant French:
Un essai a eu lieu au cours de la période estivale chez un producteur de Beaufort. Le
même troupeau a pâturé successivement deux quartiers d'un alpage caractérisés par une
composition botanique des pelouses très différente. Les pelouses d’altitude moyenne
présentent de nombreuses espèces sans dominance vraiment marquée, tandis que les
pelouses « alpines » ont une moindre diversité avec une très forte dominance de deux
espèces.
Dans cet essai, les différences concernent essentiellement la flaveur. Les Beaufort des
pelouses alpines ont été plus salés, plus piquants et plus acides que ceux des pelouses
moyennes. Ils ont présenté des arômes plus intenses et plus épicés.
Which completely goes against what most of us think (and Sailor, relevant to your post), which is that greater biodiversity leads to a more flavorful milk/cheese. And perhaps that still holds. This study merely showed that two (climax?) species predominated on the higher pastures, and whatever those species are, this led to a more intense, earthy, spicy finished cheese, when compared with the cheese made by identical methods on lower, my biodiverse pastures. All qualities desired in a Beaufort. Interesting stuff. I would like to contact the authors, to find out what species they found.
Alp, thanks for the direct experience notes. Are you saying you saw those clovers above the treeline, or below?
I'd like to explore other clovers, as well. Just need to make sure about bloat, on clover-heavy paddocks. I think you avoid it by disallowing your cows to hit dewy, morning clover, right? And perhaps giving them hay?