Red clover

[Derrick Hughes]

Her view will be the best we can do though. She may well have practical experience of feeding red clover silage.
Not too concerned as we can feed silage to beef cattle and grazing is rocket fuel for lamb fattening.
We will be cutting once and then fatten lambs on it which is main purpose.
Had been thinking of sowing another field this year but, having watched 4 webinars last week by SRUC on rotational grazing, it struck.me none of the farmers featured grew it. One did grow multi species herbal l TBeys which he rates highly and I have been discussing with son if we should maybe go down this route instead as we are increasing our use of paddock grazing.

Herbel leys work well in a Paddock System as does Red clover of course
If you want any Help feel free to message me , Nick who does a lot of the mixes for me has been working with Herbal leys for over 40 year

 

[Jdunn55]

Her view will be the best we can do though. She may well have practical experience of feeding red clover silage.
Not too concerned as we can feed silage to beef cattle and grazing is rocket fuel for lamb fattening.
We will be cutting once and then fatten lambs on it which is main purpose.
Had been thinking of sowing another field this year but, having watched 4 webinars last week by SRUC on rotational grazing, it struck.me none of the farmers featured grew it. One did grow multi species herbal l TBeys which he rates highly and I have been discussing with son if we should maybe go down this route instead as we are increasing our use of paddock grazing.

This is one of our herbal leys (excuse the cow she calved in september with her 18th calf at the age of 18 so is a little bit frail!) I love them and am putting in another 42 acres this year to bring our total up to 67acres out of our total of 240ac, next year that will increase again up to about 120ac which I think is about right as the other half i can use to give red clover a break
Edit: was last grazed kn the 30th of November and had no dung, slurry or fertiliser since

 

[ISCO]

This is one of our herbal leys (excuse the cow she calved in september with her 18th calf at the age of 18 so is a little bit frail!) I love them and am putting in another 42 acres this year to bring our total up to 67acres out of our total of 240ac, next year that will increase again up to about 120ac which I think is about right as the other half i can use to give red clover a break
Edit: was last grazed kn the 30th of November and had no dung, slurry or fertiliser since
View attachment 943730

That looks good. I think we may well go down the herbal ley route this year. Something different to try and avoid all our eggs in red clover basket so to speak.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

That looks good. I think we may well go down the herbal ley route this year. Something different to try and avoid all our eggs in red clover basket so to speak.

You could also had Chicory and Plantain to the Red Clover . With a small amount of ryegrass . Work out a lot cheaper for you

 

[organicguy]

That looks good. I think we may well go down the herbal ley route this year. Something different to try and avoid all our eggs in red clover basket so to speak.

The only issue I see with herbal leys is they are more difficult to ensile, leaving out chicory would make it easier, but it has a certain value in the mix.

 

[Cows 'n grass]

Has anyone grown a red variety called Bonus? It's supposedly a longer lasting one.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Has anyone grown a red variety called Bonus? It's supposedly a longer lasting one.

Milvus would be very persistent would outscore Bonus by 12 months
The Swiss plant breeders have used the Matenklee or mountain type Red Clover as a parent and have bred a variety which has been proved to last a full four years in the UK,

Harmonie being another that scores high on Persistence

 

[neilo]

We have a field of red clover/ryegrass mix at the moment sown last June when it rained having also had a field for 3 years about 5 years ago. This is a standard barenbrug mix I think from great in grass.
It does fatten lambs better than anything else I have ever grown. We do lose the odd one with red gut when grazing.
The intention was to make high quality silage for the ewes however it never really worked with our first attempts some years ago as it was always too wet.
We are trying again this year but will now make further enquires before feeding to ewes as I always thought that it was only grazing around tupping that potentially reduced fertility.

Someone local to here puts his freshly lambed ewes on RC leys. It keeps them at a very high stocking rate and they milk like stink on it.

 

[Kevtherev]

The 2 Aberystwyth bred R clovers are both very persistent and long lasting.
Aberclaret & Aberchianti

 

[ISCO]

Someone local to here puts his freshly lambed ewes on RC leys. It keeps them at a very high stocking rate and they milk like stink on it.

Our plan at the moment is to keep it shut up and take an early silage cut and then graze lambs which are about to be born now.
I can imagine ewes and lambs will thrive on it, fat lambs certainly do, just a shame about red gut.

 

[Jdunn55]

Our plan at the moment is to keep it shut up and take an early silage cut and then graze lambs which are about to be born now.
I can imagine ewes and lambs will thrive on it, fat lambs certainly do, just a shame about red gut.

Is red gut just the same as bloat?
My plan for next year is to lamb later next year in April and get ewes straight out to grazing within 48 hours of lambing as then the red clover will be flying (hopefully!). I would graze the red clover ground in february once they're back from winter keep (most want them gone by the end of January) and then shut it up to give good cover for april. Then when lambs are weaned move them onto some straight italian ryegrass that will be available once wholecrop has been cut (would be undersown) and graze or sell the ram lambs (depending on prices, availability of grazing and how they're looking!) And shut the rest up for silage to feed to the ewes in march prior to lambing.

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Is red gut just the same as bloat?
My plan for next year is to lamb later next year in April and get ewes straight out to grazing within 48 hours of lambing as then the red clover will be flying (hopefully!). I would graze the red clover ground in february once they're back from winter keep (most want them gone by the end of January) and then shut it up to give good cover for april. Then when lambs are weaned move them onto some straight italian ryegrass that will be available once wholecrop has been cut (would be undersown) and graze or sell the ram lambs (depending on prices, availability of grazing and how they're looking!) And shut the rest up for silage to feed to the ewes in march prior to lambing.

Sudden change of diet in lambs can cause an odd one to bloat . Important to add a touch of grass to the mix . They will tend to nibble at the grass for a few days until the adjust to the clover ,

 

[Jdunn55]

Sudden change of diet in lambs can cause an odd one to bloat . Important to add a touch of grass to the mix . They will tend to nibble at the grass for a few days until the adjust to the clover ,

Sorry should have said, they would be red clover herbal leys, about 15% clover 15% other legumes 10% herbs and 60% grasses (to qualify with gs4 requirements), lambs would be on them within 48 hours of birth so as they grow and start nibbling my hope is they'll already be accustomed to the mix by the time they're eating from it properly

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Sorry should have said, they would be red clover herbal leys, about 15% clover 15% other legumes 10% herbs and 60% grasses (to qualify with gs4 requirements), lambs would be on them within 48 hours of birth so as they grow and start nibbling my hope is they'll already be accustomed to the mix by the time they're eating from it properly

Have you used chicory much . Seems a love it or hate it crop , lot say lambs do well on it in a mix

 

[Sid]

Have you used chicory much . Seems a love it or hate it crop , lot say lambs do well on it in a mix

Chicory need to be kept on top of.

Had a freind grow it for grazing and it had to be grazed before the grass was ready.
Definitely made it a challenge!

 

[Jdunn55]

Have you used chicory much . Seems a love it or hate it crop , lot say lambs do well on it in a mix

Sowed my first mix with chicory in last spring (it's the field I posted earlier in this thread) havent grazed sheep on it yet, when it got going last year after we had some rain it did phenomenal, I'm not sure it liked being grazed in November though, will see how it does this year before I make my mind up on it!

 

[Kevtherev]

Chicory needs good management or it can go old and unpalatable I’ve seen sheep in leys eat all the grasses and clover and not touch the chicory.
Some though have successful results with it though so shows one system doesn’t suit another’s.

 

[Jdunn55]

Chicory needs good management or it can go old and unpalatable I’ve seen sheep in leys eat all the grasses and clover and not touch the chicory.
Some though have successful results with it though so shows one system doesn’t suit another’s.

How do those who have success with it manage it? It's my first proper season growing it so am intrigued

 

[Kevtherev]

How do those who have success with it manage it? It's my first proper season growing it so am intrigued

Good rotational grazing management is key
@neilo is our residential electric fence Guru

 

[Sid]

How do those who have success with it manage it? It's my first proper season growing it so am intrigued

It goes tough like docks.....fast!