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Clover seed in Digestate?

fred.950

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Dorset/Wiltshire
We are having 35 cube / hectare of Digestate applied next week after second cut on some fairly open leys, I didn’t know if it would be worth chucking some seed in with it? It will be applied with a dribble bar and the driver is more than happy to do it in exchange for a McDonald’s. Or do I need to get it drilled properly??
@Great In Grass
@deleted user 837354
 
I've known people put clover seed in feed troughs and slurry tankers with varying degrees of success. Never seemed 100% reliable to me but maybe a dribble bar would result in it being more even.
 
We are having 35 cube / hectare of Digestate applied next week after second cut on some fairly open leys, I didn’t know if it would be worth chucking some seed in with it? It will be applied with a dribble bar and the driver is more than happy to do it in exchange for a McDonald’s. Or do I need to get it drilled properly??
@Great In Grass
@deleted user 837354
i tried some through the umbilical last year and about none of it took
 

Derrick Hughes

Member
Location
Ceredigion
Thanks, that pretty much answers that (y)
One thing you learn in farming is two years never the same . Because it did not work for him means very little or no one would ever direct drill again or turn a furrow , and very few can give a reliable comment without seeing the field . Lot depends on how open the sward is and if you sow after cutting
 

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
mike lemmy's idea of putting in the feed trough sounded good, just about to try it, after years of saying, I must try that ! That will be on hfr calves, on p/p. Not our field, but has taken us 10 years to get it clean, its now useful, clover would be the cream,
 

fred.950

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Dorset/Wiltshire
One thing you learn in farming is two years never the same . Because it did not work for him means very little or no one would ever direct drill again or turn a furrow , and very few can give a reliable comment without seeing the field . Lot depends on how open the sward is and if you sow after cutting
The sward is quite open because it had clover but I sacrificed it to get rid of a lot of young docks but the grass that’s there is good. Maybe I should try one field through the dribble bar and one field with a drill.
can you even buy clover separately? :scratchhead:
 
The sward is quite open because it had clover but I sacrificed it to get rid of a lot of young docks but the grass that’s there is good. Maybe I should try one field through the dribble bar and one field with a drill.
can you even buy clover separately? :scratchhead:

Yes loads of places will sell clover separately or even a mixture of clovers.
 
If there is bare dirt evident already because the sward has thinned etc then do as great in grass suggested and get someone to slot it in somehow. Then roll it and pray for rain.
 
mike lemmy's idea of putting in the feed trough sounded good, just about to try it, after years of saying, I must try that ! That will be on hfr calves, on p/p. Not our field, but has taken us 10 years to get it clean, its now useful, clover would be the cream,
Tried that too?‍♂️was too dry when i fed it to the cattle I recon
I do have good 2ft circles of clover growing where I tipped the grub on the grass tho
 
Last edited:

Derrick Hughes

Member
Location
Ceredigion
The sward is quite open because it had clover but I sacrificed it to get rid of a lot of young docks but the grass that’s there is good. Maybe I should try one field through the dribble bar and one field with a drill.
can you even buy clover separately? :scratchhead:
Yes we sell it for Hurrells Seeds had a blend made up last week . If you dont have a rep in your area then Message me I will sort a price , , drill would be the safest way as long as he dont go in to deep. Just scratch the surface . Hold the grass back . The problem is your trying to hold back the tide as you and Feeding the sward with your digestate but wanting to hold it back at the same time
If I was wanting to drill clover it would be with lime Phosphate and Potash . No N . Keep stock on it grazing hard until it chits .
 

fred.950

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Dorset/Wiltshire
Yes we sell it for Hurrells Seeds had a blend made up last week . If you dont have a rep in your area then Message me I will sort a price , , drill would be the safest way as long as he dont go in to deep. Just scratch the surface . Hold the grass back . The problem is your trying to hold back the tide as you and Feeding the sward with your digestate but wanting to hold it back at the same time
If I was wanting to drill clover it would be with lime Phosphate and Potash . No N . Keep stock on it grazing hard until it chits .
Ph is good and the Digestate is relatively low on N compared to P & K so it’s probably worth a go.
 

neilo

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Montgomeryshire
Ph is good and the Digestate is relatively low on N compared to P & K so it’s probably worth a go.

Make sure you do it before a decent wet spell and if doesn’t matter how you distribute the seed. I’ve had good results with a slug pelleter and from chucking it with fertiliser, but the important bit is the following rain. Without that it will just germinate from the moisture in the digestate, then die off.

I have my own Simtech but I have never felt the urge to scratch up any weed seeds by spending time and money DD’ing clover in.
 

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Webinar: Expanded Sustainable Farming Incentive offer 2024 -26th Sept

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On Thursday 26th September, we’re holding a webinar for farmers to go through the guidance, actions and detail for the expanded Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) offer. This was planned for end of May, but had to be delayed due to the general election. We apologise about that.

Farming and Countryside Programme Director, Janet Hughes will be joined by policy leads working on SFI, and colleagues from the Rural Payment Agency and Catchment Sensitive Farming.

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