• Welcome to The Farming Forum!

    As part of this update, we have made a change to the login and registration process. If you are experiences any problems, please email [email protected] with the details so we can resolve any issues.

Red Clover

Derrick Hughes

Member
Location
Ceredigion
The issue I always find is 'reps' are told to tout all they can. @Kevtherev mentioned last night a lot of this valuable information is self taught through trial and error in an open forum where said reps can the push as their experience or 'knowledge' :ROFLMAO:
kev is also a seed rep , he gives some excellent advice as well , as for myself I'm for most a farmer , involved in the family since I was a child , beef sheep dairy and arable over the years on 650 acres which I now manage myself since dad passed away , we also rent land to Adas for their field trials
I enjoy talking to farmers and trying to help if I can , but makes no odds to me I'm getting near retirment age and just as happy cycling around the country on my bike , I've certainly got no time for the constant snipping on here.
I post a lot on the BFF Facebook page and they are all polite and friendly on there
,
 

Bill the Bass

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Cumbria
We have it in our herbal leys, as has been said, needs careful management not to graze it too tight - which Unfortunately I have done on one field, however grassland management has been a challenge here this spring and last due to prolonged dry spells in March and April.
 

Derrick Hughes

Member
Location
Ceredigion
What was your method? Drill our broadcast?
I put that in with a Tine Harrow with a mounted air seeder , the sward was open and did a good job , give it a good rolling after , works out cheaper than the disc drill , tines down hard and sprinkled the seed on top , drills can put Clover to deep if not carefull ,I used the disc drill for grass seed into turf mind
 

JMTHORNLEY

Member
Location
Glossop
kev is also a seed rep , he gives some excellent advice as well , as for myself I'm for most a farmer , involved in the family since I was a child , beef sheep dairy and arable over the years on 650 acres which I now manage myself since dad passed away , we also rent land to Adas for their field trials
I enjoy talking to farmers and trying to help if I can , but makes no odds to me I'm getting near retirment age and just as happy cycling around the country on my bike , I've certainly got no time for the constant snipping on here.
I post a lot on the BFF Facebook page and they are all polite and friendly on there
,
Eye, maybe because they've not got the full measure of you just yet, and your by no means as argumentative or as down right a rude f**king knowall on there either. I generally take no interest in how much a man farms and less in a man that feels the need to tell me how much he farms and even less in a man that tells me how long he's been farming. So really if you feel the need to back up your credentials to that much a point then surly there must be something wrong with your sales pitch and delivery of information, as I've said before, if it even is your sales pitch or your information, I doubt it is :)

Mine is my own meandering experience and the odd bit of joy I get from taking pictures of my grass.....I like grass
 

Kevtherev

Member
Location
Welshpool Powys
Do you think that's enough Red seeing as there is two thirds less seed in a kilo as opposed to White Clover?

Just interested in your views. 🤔
Bit of an addition really to try and get some deep roots in.There is a white clover blend in the mix too will keep you posted how it behaves being direct drilled.
Hoping for it to be a successful establishment.
 

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
we can dry out badly, and dry yrs seem to be increasing
so most of what we now so, bears that in mind, root systems need to be deep, and strong, prg isn't our most favourite grass, tends to be shallower rooted, and quickly heads at stress periods, we still use the 'dryer' types, but cocksfoot fesques fustololiums and timothy go in as well, inc some herbs, and lots of clover, now putting clover seed in with fert. ( to bulk the fert up a bit !!!!!). This spring, our clover is really early, don't really know why, but, wonder, if the low rate of N, 25units grazing, 40 cutting, has meant the grass element, has been slower, without its N fix, and let the clover grow, I don't know, but would definitely would like to. The other big difference this year, is bulk, we have had very large cuts, even where sheep grazed til mid march, now, with less N, one would expect lower yield, yet the opposite happened, and the grass colour was deep green, so N came from somewhere.
Read an article somewhere, that said, to get max benefit from clover N, soil fauna, fungii, and root systems, all had to be 'correct'. We have been focusing on soil, and root systems, for the last 3 yrs, min til, dd etc. Has that helped with N take up ? Not a clue, but something has made the grass grow, and it hasn't come out the bag ! Clover/legumes are increasing every year, we buy seed, in 25kg bags, and spin lots out. On another thread, Aus farmer, sprays out weeds in clover, with ordinary spray, not clover safe, reckons it hits it back, for a couple of weeks, then grows again, his swards were full of clover.
 

Derrick Hughes

Member
Location
Ceredigion
Eye, maybe because they've not got the full measure of you just yet, and your by no means as argumentative or as down right a rude f**king knowall on there either. I generally take no interest in how much a man farms and less in a man that feels the need to tell me how much he farms and even less in a man that tells me how long he's been farming. So really if you feel the need to back up your credentials to that much a point then surly there must be something wrong with your sales pitch and delivery of information, as I've said before, if it even is your sales pitch or your information, I doubt it is :)

Mine is my own meandering experience and the odd bit of joy I get from taking pictures of my grass.....I like grass
When someone questions your right to speak then forgive me if I try and defend myself lol
This is me buckraking back in the 70ts when I should have been in School 😀
Some good old RVP Italian Ryegass coming in lol
IMG_20220512_222911.jpg
 

Nenuphar

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Ireland
Something that I meant to ask, if you're applying liquid slurry to a red clover/prg mix what method of application is preferred? It's a contractor that spreads my slurry and I have the option of an injector, trailing shoe, dribble bar and splash plate.

The idea in my head is to sow some this August with composted dung, then 100kg/ha of 18-6-12 in the spring year 1, 1500-2000gal/ac of good slurry after each cut and compost in October. Am I mad?
 
Something that I meant to ask, if you're applying liquid slurry to a red clover/prg mix what method of application is preferred? It's a contractor that spreads my slurry and I have the option of an injector, trailing shoe, dribble bar and splash plate.

The idea in my head is to sow some this August with composted dung, then 100kg/ha of 18-6-12 in the spring year 1, 1500-2000gal/ac of good slurry after each cut and compost in October. Am I mad?
No that sounds about right
 

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
you can put rc in any time, it germinates when it thinks the time is right.
just been over some grass cut last sunday, white clover coming back quicker than the grass, and you can see how big the clover patches are,
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
We have a fair bit of red clover in our newer pastures, animals do really well on it even if left to "lose quality" as most people would consider it is ready at about the flowering stage or earlier.

In my experience this blows their bums and in some cases, gave male cattle "waterbelly" due to excess protein, so we don't graze immature feed any more and have had no trouble since.

Downsides, regular grazing (often) really doesn't do anything to help it persist.

Upsides, huge amount of high quality summer feed, seed goes through cattle and pops up new plants in their poo, fixes heaps of N if allowed to grow properly, and appears like magic once you have it around the place.
In our system it's really valuable as a forage because a lot of the cool-season grasses take a few months off in the summertime, worse in dry years.
This stuff just keeps ripping out of the ground.
 

crashbox

Member
Livestock Farmer
Who puts fert on in the first season?
How much?

Have put some on for first cut (50kgM/ha) as I know it doesn't start fixing from the off, thinking about doing 2nd cut?

This is a silage herbal ley with 3kg/acre red clover seed...
 

JMTHORNLEY

Member
Location
Glossop
Who puts fert on in the first season?
How much?

Have put some on for first cut (50kgM/ha) as I know it doesn't start fixing from the off, thinking about doing 2nd cut?

This is a silage herbal ley with 3kg/acre red clover seed...
First cut is 50kgs Acre for me, if you can get it on before the RC starts growing it gives it a nice little kick and really wakes the clover up to much and you'll kill it
 

How is your SFI 24 application progressing?

  • havn't been invited to apply

    Votes: 28 36.4%
  • have been invited to apply

    Votes: 13 16.9%
  • applied but not yet accepted

    Votes: 28 36.4%
  • agreement up and running

    Votes: 8 10.4%

Webinar: Expanded Sustainable Farming Incentive offer 2024 -26th Sept

  • 2,390
  • 49
On Thursday 26th September, we’re holding a webinar for farmers to go through the guidance, actions and detail for the expanded Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) offer. This was planned for end of May, but had to be delayed due to the general election. We apologise about that.

Farming and Countryside Programme Director, Janet Hughes will be joined by policy leads working on SFI, and colleagues from the Rural Payment Agency and Catchment Sensitive Farming.

This webinar will be...
Back
Top