Can you have too much clover in a ley?

[Ben B]

Rained here in the hills last Friday

Clover leaves finally appeared through winters mud

Joyful sheep had them disappearing by Sunday





Baled pure clover hay when over in Australia quarter century past

Had to be done in darkness, or the stuff shattered in the heat

Made animals fed skitter worse than a hangovers dodgy kebab

All hay over here is baled at night or early morning.

Honestly don't see a problem though pure clover makes good silage I would love to have a stand like that over here.

 

[Kentishfarmer]

Never heard of SBS before

As I understand it the very high iron content in high % red clover silage is antagonistic to manganese uptake in cows and locks the manganese out. Manganese deficiency in pregnant cows around months 4&5 causes short bone syndrome or 'bulldog calves' basically what presents as dwarfism. Often they won't suck or stand or the first few days and in more extreme cases that make it to adulthood they never reach their full size.
More common in the US and parts of Ireland than England I believe

 

[harperfarmer]

3rd year grass/white clover ley

Cattle love it but it does go through them a bit. Try to put first calved heifers on some decent clover to get them growing plenty of frame.

 

[Sir loin]

I' am going to cut mine and feed it to young stock. As a student many many years ago I learnt about feeding cattle the Rosemaund E H Farm way adlib quality silage and 2 kilos rolled barley plus sugar beet I think the way feed prices are heading I am going to look at that system again. Yes I will not get the1.5/6 kilos /day that we currently get feeding ad lib barley mix but I am sure it will be much more economic.

 

[som farmer]

very high content clover leys, are fine, but you have to manage them differently to grass dominant leys, the usual, don't let them out hungry, and be aware of bloat.
Plus side, reduces fert requirements, and that has to be good. This year, our clover content now, is usually what we see in july/august, not sure why, and it will be interesting to see how much, there is, come july !

 

[davidroberts30]

I' am going to cut mine and feed it to young stock. As a student many many years ago I learnt about feeding cattle the Rosemaund E H Farm way adlib quality silage and 2 kilos rolled barley plus sugar beet I think the way feed prices are heading I am going to look at that system again. Yes I will not get the1.5/6 kilos /day that we currently get feeding ad lib barley mix but I am sure it will be much more economic.

That's kinda how I feed my stock in wintergood silage beet and barley

 

[Sir loin]

View attachment 1033302
This is year 2 of a five year cutting/grazing ley. The clover seems to have taken off this year, but can you have too much clover for first cut haylage?

Just coming back to this thread i started earlier, how would you put just weaned lambs onto a sward like this coming from a field well eaten up? (200 lambs onto 11 Acres) Thinking Bloat problems as sward is now quite wet so restricted access is possible from a field not blessed with the same amount of clover yet. And as a side issue why has the clover totally bossed the ryegrass (1kg clover seed 13 Kg ryegrass in second year of three year ley)
Restrict access at first

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Just coming back to this thread i started earlier, how would you put just weaned lambs onto a sward like this coming from a field well eaten up? (200 lambs onto 11 Acres) Thinking Bloat problems as sward is now quite wet so restricted access is possible from a field not blessed with the same amount of clover yet. And as a side issue why has the clover totally bossed the ryegrass (1kg clover seed 13 Kg ryegrass in second year of three year ley)
Restrict access at first

Clover as romted away this year especially on Red as it copes with dry conditions better than Ryegrass,
For bloat it's young lush growth that's the worst so let the Clover get a bit more mature before grazing if your worried
I can rembember being plagued with bloat in cows on rape one year , it was sown thick and probably grazed to early , after that we sowed it thinner so we got more stem

 

[neilo]

Just coming back to this thread i started earlier, how would you put just weaned lambs onto a sward like this coming from a field well eaten up? (200 lambs onto 11 Acres) Thinking Bloat problems as sward is now quite wet so restricted access is possible from a field not blessed with the same amount of clover yet. And as a side issue why has the clover totally bossed the ryegrass (1kg clover seed 13 Kg ryegrass in second year of three year ley)
Restrict access at first

I’ve never seen bloat in lambs put onto white clover, and I’d not be too concerned about running them in there.

Expect some dirty bums from the sudden change to a high protein diet though, and make sure they’re covered for clostridials, or they’ll be more prone from doing so well.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

I’ve never seen bloat in lambs put onto white clover, and I’d not be too concerned about running them in there.

Expect some dirty bums from the sudden change to a high protein diet though, and make sure they’re covered for clostridials, or they’ll be more prone from doing so well.

You must have seen far from the madding crowd lol

 

[Derrick Hughes]

 

[Sir loin]

I’ve never seen bloat in lambs put onto white clover, and I’d not be too concerned about running them in there.

Expect some dirty bums from the sudden change to a high protein diet though, and make sure they’re covered for clostridials, or they’ll be more prone from doing so well.

They have all had 2 doses of Ovivac P Plus.

 

[neilo]

View attachment 1062630

You do realise that’s not a documentary?

 

[Derrick Hughes]

You do realise that’s not a documentary?

How did they get them all to lie down at the same time

 

[DrDunc]

How did they get them all to lie down at the same time

Bullets

 

[Sir loin]

Bullets

Filmed James Herriot (All creatures great and small the original one) on our farm when we used to have pigs the one about salt poisoning wanted to film post-mortem so we had to get two pigs slaughtered at the VOM brought them home charged the BBC £100 each then cut them up and put them in the freezer Fred Gee was the knackerman I was his assistant my only claim to fame.

 

[devonbeef]

well my warning to all stockkeepers today is watch them, have had a yearling blow up like a balloon today, oil her ,it went down , back up this eve, just in from dosing him with oil and marching him around the shed to walk it off ,alarm set for a few times in night to monitor. been on freshly growing fast white clover ryegrass ley.( not that much clover before anyone says)

 

[Sir loin]

well my warning to all stockkeepers today is watch them, have had a yearling blow up like a balloon today, oil her ,it went down , back up this eve, just in from dosing him with oil and marching him around the shed to walk it off ,alarm set for a few times in night to monitor. been on freshly growing fast white clover ryegrass ley.( not that much clover before anyone says)

If you have to oil a few times, go for the trocar and canular so you don't lose him.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

well my warning to all stockkeepers today is watch them, have had a yearling blow up like a balloon today, oil her ,it went down , back up this eve, just in from dosing him with oil and marching him around the shed to walk it off ,alarm set for a few times in night to monitor. been on freshly growing fast white clover ryegrass ley.( not that much clover before anyone says)

Lamb or Calf ?
Some cattle are prone to it , we had a cow that had a whole in its back permanent when on brasicas, to let the gas out

 

[devonbeef]

a calf , i am going to put him in now with next sized group which are housed, down this morning still, makes you nervous walking around checking this morning, hope there is no more. bloat conditions at moment, its growing so fast after storms of last week