Feeding grass/clover seed

[HasthorpeGrange]

Corn rep came the other day and mentioned a few people had asked if they could put some clover seed in the blend to get the cows to plant it in the fields. Has anyone any experience of this? I'd be interested to try it to fill out the swards a bit and whatever going in the slurry store will be spread on grass fields anyway. It should help in gate ways and gathering areas under trees etc where there's a lot of dung, having seed there as well should keep it greener. Also how much to put in?

 

[Scholsey]

Buy it yourself and chuck a bit in the feeder wagon each day? or just chuck it on by hand in the places you want it.

 

[HasthorpeGrange]

I wasn't planning on having it in the blend I'd just put it in myself like you say

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Seems to work OK with cows, anywhere my cattle poo after silage seems to just grow clover, so I have tried to build on that in a few different ways, they transfer seed reasonably well compared to sheep.

Personally I have found it quite surprisingly hit-and miss but you get some grow where it wasn't - some quite good density of red clover where none was ever sown.
I would say:

1. Use the cheapest seed you can find as it may well fail
2. It won't all fail all the time so still worth a try
3. Possibly almost as effective as letting a field go to seed and strip feeding it, which is what I aim to do more of here as it fits the system better than feeding.

Best of luck anyway, would be interested to know how it goes if you try it, success often hinges on our expectations .

 

[Bury the Trash]

forget that farting around at random.


Best to Broadcast clover seed on,...... before you you do that pass with the grass harrow.... or roller

just fix up the 'nodding small seed container' in yer spreader or use a bike one if you have it......

 

[HasthorpeGrange]

Passing with a harrow and rolling it in is 1 two jobs, 2 two passes with tractors burning deisel and causing compaction and three time consuming, seed would be put in with mineral when loading feeder wagon, buffer all year round. I think cheapest possible seed would be a good idea as @Kiwi Pete suggests. We have a couple of bags of red clover in the shed we've had a few years everything on the farm is now white clover, it would be good to experiment with that to see if it works as it a different colour

 

[kill]

Buy it yourself and chuck a bit in the feeder wagon each day? or just chuck it on by hand in the places you want it.

Works fantastic with Docks as well

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Passing with a harrow and rolling it in is 1 two jobs, 2 two passes with tractors burning deisel and causing compaction and three time consuming, seed would be put in with mineral when loading feeder wagon, buffer all year round. I think cheapest possible seed would be a good idea as @Kiwi Pete suggests. We have a couple of bags of red clover in the shed we've had a few years everything on the farm is now white clover, it would be good to experiment with that to see if it works as it a different colour

There's about 272 thousand seeds in a pound of red clover so I would "fart around at random" and see what happens to your couple of bagfuls over the season.
It should still be OK even if germ is down a bit, that is a lot of seeds.

 

[ollie989898]

Best to spread with spreader really. Honestly.

 

[Kevtherev]

Best to spread with spreader really. Honestly.

Yes I agree there and conditions need to be right for clover to get going well
p&k as well

 

[Kiwi Pete]

Best to spread with spreader really. Honestly.

No denying that, but as per the OP I thought it fair to answer his questions as to will it work (yes) and had anyone had any experience of it (also yes).

There is also another current thread asking what is the best forage crop to help fight compaction, and the answer: "annual ryegrass is simple"

Absolutely no offence intended, just sayin'.

 

[ollie989898]

Yes I agree there and conditions need to be right for clover to get going well
p&k as well

Im convinced clover needs more P and K than grass!

 

[Princess Pooper]

It would work. We don't do it but we have white clover /grass silage leys. When the cows graze the aftermath in the summer (daytimes) they spread the clover seed they have eaten on the leys into the permanent pasture (night grazing). Noticeable concentrations in gateways and gathering areas.

 

[HasthorpeGrange]

The seed would be in a pile of dung would that not be enough?

 

[Extreme Optimist]

I started adding clover to the calves creep feed last year and have had fantastic results. I had one field that we tried 3x to oversow with red and white clover and all failed. Stuck some in the creep feeder and now have clumps of clover all over the field which I presume will spread further. I guess it has worked well as it is being spread in it's own medium with P and K on tap and with plenty of moisture to start the growing seeds off.
Have just bought some more clover for this year and am looking at what other seeds maybe applied this way

 

[HasthorpeGrange]

It would work. We don't do it but we have white clover /grass silage leys. When the cows graze the aftermath in the summer (daytimes) they spread the clover seed they have eaten on the leys into the permanent pasture (night grazing). Noticeable concentrations in gateways and gathering areas.

We have a field of pp and it hasn't had clover in it for 10 years, last year circles of it appeared all over it

 

[HasthorpeGrange]

I started adding clover to the calves creep feed last year and have had fantastic results. I had one field that we tried 3x to oversow with red and white clover and all failed. Stuck some in the creep feeder and now have clumps of clover all over the field which I presume will spread further. I guess it has worked well as it is being spread in it's own medium with P and K on tap and with plenty of moisture to start the growing seeds off.
Have just bought some more clover for this year and am looking at what other seeds maybe applied this way

At what rate did you feed it?

 

[Extreme Optimist]

At what rate did you feed it?

Was very much suck it and see as I couldn't find any advice from anyone.
I probably chucked about 1/2 kg of seed in 350kg of creep feed. It doesn't seem much, but didn't want to overdo it and it certainly appears to have worked.

 

[HasthorpeGrange]

Was very much suck it and see as I couldn't find any advice from anyone.
I probably chucked about 1/2 kg of seed in 350kg of creep feed. It doesn't seem much, but didn't want to overdo it and it certainly appears to have worked.

I was thinking just a handful a day in each mix

 

[dannewhouse]

organic farmer I know says theres only 2 months to sow clover no matter how you do it, both begin with A August and April for reasonable takes, I probably say the same about grass aswell?

I also fancy trying the feeding seed idea through calf creep feeds but I haven't looked too far into it but like the idea.