Red Clover

[davidroberts30]

Yes but with what?

5 years is a long break from grass on a livestock farm. My solution will probably be 1 year maize, then 4 years white clover / herbal.ley, then maize, then back to red clover.

Maize,beet maybe barley grass
But you probably cant afford to be without the grass

 

[JMTHORNLEY]

so, r/clover is a magic plant, as are most legumes
but how do we avoid v/wilt, and the need for a 4/5yr break, between reseeding ?
looking through a few seed brochures recently, it would seem, for non organic mixtures, clover usually is included at 1 kg/acre, yet more in organic mixes.
so, what is the 'ideal' amount of clover seed, to include, in a 'normal' seed mix ?
l am a fan of clover, and with fert at high price, N fixed by legumes, is/could be, an opportunity to counter N price, and its basically a free supply of N.
our clover over wintered very well, and pre 1st round grazing, with no fert applied, clover was at levels, l would expect in later summer, for 2nd round, 30 units N + S was applied, resulting in more grass, than clover - the amount of clover, where it 'should' be.
the amount of N clover can 'fix', is affected by soil structure, health and all the bugs fungi, that are present,
did the lack of the N fix, for grass, 1st round, let the clover 'come 'early', or co-incidence.
we have had the most grass for 1st cut, for decades - on less than 50% of normal fert. Same remarks for grazing, apply, catered for less grass, low fert, ended up with way to much.

Fair bit to digest in there, I to am seeing large crops of grass of bugger all fert and grazing ground looks as well as it normally does with no N at all.

On a side note and about bacteria, it seems to be popular over Facebook at the moment with things like 'Prosoil' and the magical 'Edwards Advanced Seaweed' that they have some inclusion of this bacteria that can be mixed from powder form into a sprayer then applied over ground and these bacteria's get to work improving the soil structure and fixing N all naturally.

Obviously in a year like this year everyone will be selling all sorts of magical potions and N fixers but is there much truth in the bacterial N fixers? 100 grams of bacteria there would be awful lot in it @neilo mentioned something about it some days ago if I remember correctly. Should this be considered or is it another waste of time as I tried a small seaweed plot and what a joke

 

[KennyO]

Definitely use an inoculant on Red Clover leys because of the higher concentration of protein, organic acids and minerals, which increases the resistance to pH drop (buffering capacity).

Cough, cough we offer a very good inoculant.

Pm me please with some more info. Thanks

 

[som farmer]

Fair bit to digest in there, I to am seeing large crops of grass of bugger all fert and grazing ground looks as well as it normally does with no N at all.

On a side note and about bacteria, it seems to be popular over Facebook at the moment with things like 'Prosoil' and the magical 'Edwards Advanced Seaweed' that they have some inclusion of this bacteria that can be mixed from powder form into a sprayer then applied over ground and these bacteria's get to work improving the soil structure and fixing N all naturally.

Obviously in a year like this year everyone will be selling all sorts of magical potions and N fixers but is there much truth in the bacterial N fixers? 100 grams of bacteria there would be awful lot in it @neilo mentioned something about it some days ago if I remember correctly. Should this be considered or is it another waste of time as I tried a small seaweed plot and what a joke

wary of snake oil salesmen.
we have, broadly speaking, following regen ag principles, for a few years, with plenty of positive results, not often you get something for nothing, but using simple changes, big response.
For us, a 5 yr break between rc, is not practical, we like rc, and last year, wrapped two cuts of rc, the rest went in the pit, that came out at 19% pro, fed at 1 per day, in the tmr, worked nicely, with good quality grass silage, for the dairy.
but it would be nice to grow more rc leys. The more legumes, the better.

on the additive, use one, and the 'pelleted' seed looks interesting, esp with inoculant.
we are also trying 'other' clovers, to see what happens. Two of our biggest inputs, other than the unavoidable, are protein and fert, clovers supply both !

 

[sticky]

First proper cut of last year's reseed, it's had absolutely nothing on it and I'm quite chuffed apart from an acre covered in pod thistles.

 

[crashbox]

First proper cut of last year's reseed, it's had absolutely nothing on it and I'm quite chuffed apart from an acre covered in pod thistles.View attachment 1038885View attachment 1038886

Looks a great yield.

Are you dairy? People say let the red clover flower but... at that stage a fair amount of feed value will have gone from the grass, for milking cow grub at least.

 

[sticky]

Looks a great yield.

Are you dairy? People say let the red clover flower but... at that stage a fair amount of feed value will have gone from the grass, for milking cow grub at least.

No not dairy, just sheep but hanker after some cattle again.
The clover isn’t all in flower and would of been cut 10 days ago if it hadn’t of rained.

 

[sticky]

So a question to the more experienced then me, I’ve tedded it out do I do it again or leave it and just rake it Monday morning?

 

[Kevtherev]

So a question to the more experienced then me, I’ve tedded it out do I do it again or leave it and just rake it Monday morning?

Leave it as you may lose the leaf.

 

[JMTHORNLEY]

Leave it as you may lose the leaf.

As top man says. Be careful when raking, nice and steady don’t bash it about to much

 

[JMTHORNLEY]

Cut and baled first cut finally after all this shite whether we seem to be having here in the North West. Very happy with the crop, 8 bales to the acre and no input, what’s not to like

 

[Derrick Hughes]

Cut and baled first cut finally after all this shite whether we seem to be having here in the North West. Very happy with the crop, 8 bales to the acre and no input, what’s not to like

Good crop for Clover

 

[M-J-G]

First proper cut of last year's reseed, it's had absolutely nothing on it and I'm quite chuffed apart from an acre covered in pod thistles.View attachment 1038885View attachment 1038886

How did this yield?

 

[sticky]

How did this yield?

69 bales off the 8 acres.

 

[Sid]

Cut and baled first cut finally after all this shite whether we seem to be having here in the North West. Very happy with the crop, 8 bales to the acre and no input, what’s not to like

And with the weather on your side it will do the similar quantity and good quality for 2nd,3rd and 4th cut

 

[JMTHORNLEY]

And with the weather on your side it will do the similar quantity and good quality for 2nd,3rd and 4th cut

Clover is greening already and I left a good stubble, be fantastic if it can do that again and again

 

[davidroberts30]

Clover is greening already and I left a good stubble, be fantastic if it can do that again and again

with a coat of slurry every now and again it will for 4 years

 

[JMTHORNLEY]

with a coat of slurry every now and again it will for 4 years

I don't have any slurry available on farm.... So if anyone is close to Glossop and they'd like to sell me a few loads that'd be greatly appreciated

 

[davidroberts30]

muck?
just keep the P's and K's up

 

[JMTHORNLEY]

Mountain of muck, gets a good application at the back end