Do you have any concerns about using red clover with your sheep?

[Brid @ ADAS]

ADAS is asking sheep farmers to complete a five-minute survey to identify if there are barriers preventing them from adopting red clover mixed leys.
Click here to take the red clover survey

Responses submitted by 31 July 2023 will be entered into a prize draw to win a hamper worth £100.

Why are we asking?
Last year, an Innovative Farmers Field Lab found that grazing herbal leys containing red clover during the mating season had no negative effect on ewe fertility. Following this result, ADAS is conducting a follow-on survey to understand if there are still concerns in the industry about using red clover.

Red clover is known to reduce the need for manufactured nitrogen fertiliser, improve drought tolerance, increase homegrown protein, and improve farm biodiversity.

We would like all farmers, advisors, and vets to have the confidence to try or recommend red clover. If after this survey we find that some avoid using red clover for whatever reason, then we will do more research and gather evidence to try and address their concerns.

Contact us at [email protected] if you have any questions or would like to get more involved.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Ok the advice I give is , if the ley only contains a portion of Red Clover then fine to feed anytime , if it's a considerable amount then keep breeding sheep away ether side and during mating Rams are unaffected so fine for male sheep and Fattening Lambs for Slaughter
Were I had issue with your trail , I regarded it as meaning less as if you want to do a Trail on the effects of feeding Red Clover you needto be feeding a pure Red Clover ley, your trail farmes had leys containing 17% so with due respect did you realy expect to show up any affect , most farmers i speak to aggrea that a small amout as in your trail are harmless and as the effects are cumulative if any it needs to be done over a period on time

I'm not sure if your aware but Addas have been running there own trails here for many years , I'm quite happy to put some fields into pure Red Clover leys if you want to do some trails in a proper organised manner as they do with the other trials here

 

[neilo]

Done

 

[gpreece]

Ok the advice I give is , if the ley only contains a portion of Red Clover then fine to feed anytime , if it's a considerable amount then keep breeding sheep away ether side and during mating Rams are unaffected so fine for male sheep and Fattening Lambs for Slaughter
Were I had issue with your trail , I regarded it as meaning less as if you want to do a Trail on the effects of feeding Red Clover you needto be feeding a pure Red Clover ley, your trail farmes had leys containing 17% so with due respect did you realy expect to show up any affect , most farmers i speak to aggrea that a small amout as in your trail are harmless and as the effects are cumulative if any it needs to be done over a period on time

I'm not sure if your aware but Addas have been running there own trails here for many years , I'm quite happy to put some fields into pure Red Clover leys if you want to do some trails in a proper organised manner as they do with the other trials here

As you suggest, some farmers are starting to graze red clover in mixed swards without problems. However, due to the lack of research on this, industry guidance (via vets/adviser/nutritionists etc) is still that red clover shouldn't be grazed before and during the mating season. This does put a lot of farmers off including red clover in their leys. If the industry is going to move towards net zero and improve biodiversity more research is needed to overcome what many still see as a barrier to inclusion of red clover.

 

[Bury the Trash]

some farmers are starting to graze red clover in mixed swards without problems.

Really ?,bit slow aren't they ,we were using red clover i mixed swards as you put 50 years ago. I dont recal any 'problems'.

I suggest if you or anyone else wants to to learn something about Red clover grazing ,particularly sheep ,then search on here ,specifically to what @Global ovine has written on the subject.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

As you suggest, some farmers are starting to graze red clover in mixed swards without problems. However, due to the lack of research on this, industry guidance (via vets/adviser/nutritionists etc) is still that red clover shouldn't be grazed before and during the mating season. This does put a lot of farmers off including red clover in their leys. If the industry is going to move towards net zero and improve biodiversity more research is needed to overcome what many still see as a barrier to inclusion of red clover.

But it's no use doing the research on what many sheep farmers already eccept and do, in that if it's only a part of the ley it won't have any effect
But there are many more reasons a sheep farmer does not use Red Clover , it does not take kindly to hard grazing and only lasts 3 to 4 years
Having said that our most popular mix amongst sheep and Cattle Farmers is a Long Term with Red/White Clover and Chicory , from what I get from farmers it's the higher feed value they are after for Fattening stock and not so much the nitrogen it produces

Also a big interest we get among
sheep farmers is for Chicory Clover High Energy Ryegrass ley for Fattening Lambs, Clover content of that would be 3 kg acre with Ryegrass @ 6 kg

Another lovely old guy who comes here has been feeding Red Clover to his sheep for years , one day they get Red the next day White , his fields are covered in both , his lambing percentage is close to 200%

 

[Derrick Hughes]

ADAS is asking sheep farmers to complete a five-minute survey to identify if there are barriers preventing them from adopting red clover mixed leys.
Click here to take the red clover survey

Responses submitted by 31 July 2023 will be entered into a prize draw to win a hamper worth £100.

Why are we asking?
Last year, an Innovative Farmers Field Lab found that grazing herbal leys containing red clover during the mating season had no negative effect on ewe fertility. Following this result, ADAS is conducting a follow-on survey to understand if there are still concerns in the industry about using red clover.

Red clover is known to reduce the need for manufactured nitrogen fertiliser, improve drought tolerance, increase homegrown protein, and improve farm biodiversity.

We would like all farmers, advisors, and vets to have the confidence to try or recommend red clover. If after this survey we find that some avoid using red clover for whatever reason, then we will do more research and gather evidence to try and address their concerns.

Contact us at [email protected] if you have any questions or would like to get more involved.

Are you coming to the open day here on the 11th of July , re new clover safe spray , what surprised me was not so much how the Red Clover survived but the Chicory and Plantain is growing on also