Is it too late to sow clover

HarryB97

Member
Mixed Farmer
Always sow our grass & clover around the end of September and never have an issue. With all the warmth in the soil from the last two years and this rain forecast it'll soon get up and grow!
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
The seed I put in midwinter during the frosts is level-pegging with the clover sown in the autumn, both struck pretty well but neither really got much past cotyledon stage until a month ago.
What's your cover like now?
If you have reasonable cover then it should insulate the seedlings, if it's quite low then maybe wait?
 
Location
Cleveland
The seed I put in midwinter during the frosts is level-pegging with the clover sown in the autumn, both struck pretty well but neither really got much past cotyledon stage until a month ago.
What's your cover like now?
If you have reasonable cover then it should insulate the seedlings, if it's quite low then maybe wait?
The field I’m wanting to do was a field that was sown with spring barley and undersown with a 3/4 year grass ley with no clover in

It looks like this after it’s been combined...

2DD02CAE-2DA3-477F-B04C-1357580954D4.png

1D3EB11A-42CD-423D-8D74-660B8D8C7806.png

1213D3D9-6028-4595-9C76-46EEBD2C5A35.png
 

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
down south, I reckon the cut off date for sowing grass, 5 oct, not sure how I reached that date, would be to do with how ley has 'taken'. and I don't like sowing until sept, the nights being longer, and the dews heavier, spring sown leys I hate, very few in the last 30 years have matched autumn sown, the 1 exception we put in a drought resistant mix, spr 2018, came on well, bit thin but as we had a drought last year, very well, grazed it x2 this year, got ahead of the cows, took a cut of silage, and nothing, dead, we are reseeding it now, with another drought resistant ley !
 

Frodo2

Member
If it's just the clover would you not be better to wait. If you stitch it in now, not only will it have cooler weather, but it is competing with well established grass. You are going to have grass in spring anyway.

That said, did the seed cost a lot? If not what you got to loose?
 
What rate did you sow that at?!
Don’t know, it was barrenbrug grass seed, meant to go in 12 months previous but it was too wet so sat in the bag in the shed for a year.
IIRC it would have been sown at 14kg(a bag)/acre but not sure how much clover would have been in it, I’m not even convinced that I’d ordered the seed with clover, I didn’t think I had.
 
Location
Cleveland
Don’t know, it was barrenbrug grass seed, meant to go in 12 months previous but it was too wet so sat in the bag in the shed for a year.
IIRC it would have been sown at 14kg(a bag)/acre but not sure how much clover would have been in it, I’m not even convinced that I’d ordered the seed with clover, I didn’t think I had.
I was told to sow clover at 1/kg an acre when sowing separate
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 79 42.0%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 66 35.1%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 16.0%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

  • 1,290
  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
Top