Grazing clover

Derrick Hughes

Member
Location
Ceredigion
Never heard of the colour ‘crimson’ (not that fancy over here, it’s just red) :ROFLMAO:
So is the white flower the berseem then??
I know very little about clover
Crimson is more Aggressive than Berseem getting away Berseem is more Aggressive than Balansa, which is important if your sowing with root crops or later in the year , Crimson And Berseem are away as quick if not quicker than Brasicas , that's from my experience growing them here
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
Crimson is more Aggressive than Berseem getting away Berseem is more Aggressive than Balansa, which is important if your sowing with root crops or later in the year , Crimson And Berseem are away as quick if not quicker than Brasicas , that's from my experience growing them here

I’ve tried mixes containing Crimson clover in for the last couple of years and been quite underwhelmed by it tbh.

@Kevtherev , myself and others dabbled with balansa a few years ago (there’s a thread on here somewhere), and Germinal put Fixation balansa out on trial on several farms (I had a couple of bags to try out). The fact it’s not included in mixes now will tell you the results.
 

Derrick Hughes

Member
Location
Ceredigion
I’ve tried mixes containing Crimson clover in for the last couple of years and been quite underwhelmed by it tbh.

@Kevtherev , myself and others dabbled with balansa a few years ago (there’s a thread on here somewhere), and Germinal put Fixation balansa out on trial on several farms (I had a couple of bags to try out). The fact it’s not included in mixes now will tell you the results.
It may like my soil better perhaps, with the cost if Nitrogen I'm going to stick with it for a bit and see how I get on , I do find Balansa a bit slow at the start though
 
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neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
Clover with a root crop will be puddled away into the mud on a wet winter.

I certainly wouldn’t be putting clovers in to a winter grazed root crop here. Brassicas need N early on, and plenty of it, not several months later when any clovers have got established/are dieing back releasing N.

I can see it being useful in a fodder crop for Summer/Autumn grazing though.
 

Derrick Hughes

Member
Location
Ceredigion
Probably done it’s job by then supplying nitrogen I’d have thought
it's more to feed the crop and leave residual Nitrogen than feed the stock, Crimson is deep rooting it will scavenge deep down for nitrogen and bring it up
I'm trying to get away from spending £40 a shot on fertilizer, I have access to plenty of muck so are trying a few crops to back that up
 
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Kevtherev

Member
Location
Welshpool Powys
I certainly wouldn’t be putting clovers in to a winter grazed root crop here. Brassicas need N early on, and plenty of it, not several months later when any clovers have got established/are dieing back releasing N.

I can see it being useful in a fodder crop for Summer/Autumn grazing though.
Would be too short a turn around I’d think to get the most benefit out of the clovers.
 

sheepdogtrail

Member
Livestock Farmer
It may like my soil better perhaps, with the cost if Nitrogen I'm going to stick with it for a bit and see how I get on , I do find Balansa a bit slow at the start though
Balansa spends it first few weeks establishing its root mass before it pops out of the ground and goes wild. I add no more than 2 lbs to the acre of some fast growing grass to give it a companion. Really the best time to plant Balansa is now for May to June grazing. It will survive the winter. Let it go until August and you will have a dense mat that smothers out all other weeds. It can leave 150lbs + of N per acre at termination. 30% of those plants will survive for the following year even if you till them under.
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
Balansa spends it first few weeks establishing its root mass before it pops out of the ground and goes wild. I add no more than 2 lbs to the acre of some fast growing grass to give it a companion. Really the best time to plant Balansa is now for May to June grazing. It will survive the winter. Let it go until August and you will have a dense mat that smothers out all other weeds. It can leave 150lbs + of N per acre at termination. 30% of those plants will survive for the following year even if you till them under.

I wish. That’s certainly not the experience we’ve had with it in the UK climate, unfortunately.

We’ve tried in various different scenarios. It can create a lot of (wet) bulk in a silage crop, but that kills most of it out. It creates a bit of extra (low DM) bite in a grazed crop, but struggles to persist. Very little makes it through the (wetter?) winter here.

I’ve come to the conclusion that it doesn’t offer anything that isn’t better offered by white, red or annual clovers here. It was an interesting experiment though, as most are.:)
 

sheepdogtrail

Member
Livestock Farmer
Well you tried. Once mature it is a very bulky crop. To me, that is a big plus in a organic system. But yeah, it is classified as a annual and I would agree with low persistence due to its hard seed.

We are wet here with 65" of rain per annual with a few weeks of flooding each winter. It works for me in certain applications.
 
Got some red clover and ryegrass lay (pretty much all clover now) to graze off before we plough it up for wheat. Only things I can get there to graze it off are some of my breeding ewes. We normally put the rams on around early November, they will be off it by then. Will it be alright for the ewes to go on the red clover for a few weeks?
 

Derrick Hughes

Member
Location
Ceredigion
Got some red clover and ryegrass lay (pretty much all clover now) to graze off before we plough it up for wheat. Only things I can get there to graze it off are some of my breeding ewes. We normally put the rams on around early November, they will be off it by then. Will it be alright for the ewes to go on the red clover for a few weeks?
Cant you mow it
 

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