thinking about doing a trial with this on a couple of hectares:
1. Establish white clover (probably try to undersow into winter wheat)
2. Bale straw
3. Graze clover post harvest with fattening lambs
4. Graze clover hard pre drilling
5. Direct drill barley in spring
6. Apply herbicide to deal with weeds and give clover a headache
7. Harvest barley
8. Bale straw
9. Repeat from point 3.
Main aims would be to
increase soil fertility
reduce growing costs (herbicide, fertiliser)
improve establishment by improving soil structure compared to DD into cover crop established post harvest
improve soil biology (continuous cover/less chem/fert)
double use from field (sheep grazing should be worth approx £70/ha to me)
I can see managing clover when the barley is growing could be tricky and it may need to be an older less vigorous variety.
Has anyone tried anything like this in the UK?
Can anyone tell me why it wont work?
Also interested in suggestions for which herbicide would work pre barley emergence and whether barley/clover are the right crops to use for this.
1. Establish white clover (probably try to undersow into winter wheat)
2. Bale straw
3. Graze clover post harvest with fattening lambs
4. Graze clover hard pre drilling
5. Direct drill barley in spring
6. Apply herbicide to deal with weeds and give clover a headache
7. Harvest barley
8. Bale straw
9. Repeat from point 3.
Main aims would be to
increase soil fertility
reduce growing costs (herbicide, fertiliser)
improve establishment by improving soil structure compared to DD into cover crop established post harvest
improve soil biology (continuous cover/less chem/fert)
double use from field (sheep grazing should be worth approx £70/ha to me)
I can see managing clover when the barley is growing could be tricky and it may need to be an older less vigorous variety.
Has anyone tried anything like this in the UK?
Can anyone tell me why it wont work?
Also interested in suggestions for which herbicide would work pre barley emergence and whether barley/clover are the right crops to use for this.