We are already in the fourth week of our BETTER farm challenge review and this week we take a look at the green farming challenge.
The objective of this challenge was to establish more clover in 20% of swards across the whole farm with the end goal being to cut fertiliser costs. The challenge proved to be a popular one among farmers, with 10 in total opting to take part.
Variable costs across all farms in the BETTER programme have increased since 2017, mainly down to weather-related events.
While output has increased too, gross margins still leave a lot to be desired, much of which can be attributed to beef price.
As the average R3 steer price for the last week in November stood at €3.42/kg (23c/kg back on the same week for the previous year), all beef farmers should be extremely eager to cut costs on farms and the inclusion of clover may be one such solution. You might wonder how.
Every 1kg of fertiliser N now costs roughly €1 making it quite expensive to artificially fertilise swards.
White clover, on the other hand, has rhizobia bacteria in its roots that “fix” nitrogen from the air, and this has the potential to supply 50-200kg N/ha per year.
As a result, increasing the clover content in grassland can result in increased herbage production and quality leading to increased liveweight gains at grass. Two farmers who took the challenge in their stride were Ken Gill in Co Offaly and Tommy Holmes in Co Mayo.
Co Offaly
Ken Gill operates an organic system in Clonbullogue, Co Offaly, and invariably has no choice but to rely on clover to fix his nitrogen.
“I’ve over-sown and stitched in clover before but it can be a struggle to get it established if soil fertility isn’t correct,” he says.
But while white clover is existent in all his grazing paddocks, it is the red clover that is driving serious productivity on the farm.
Ken explained: “You can get three cuts a year and should be targeting 25 bales/acre in total. I’m probably not hitting this at the moment, because my soil P and K indexes aren’t great – a common problem in organics as you can appreciate.”
The red clover is very important as it provides a high-protein (16-18%) feed that, when offered alone, gives very good performance in his beef stock.
“I don’t want to be buying expensive organic concentrates,” he added.
Furthermore, he said “I’ll be back a little on the red clover ground with the rotation for 2020 so will be sure to maximise the potential of the ground I do sow red clover in.”
Table 1 shows Ken Gill’s red clover baled silage which was tested on 10 October.
Co Mayo
Tommy Holmes in Ballina, Co Mayo, has turned to clover not only as a way to reduce his fertiliser bill but to increase the ADG on grazing bulls, particularly in the latter half of the year. The medium leafed cultivars work best, complementing his intensive grazing policy.
He said: “It’s hard to keep the quality in the grass, especially in the back end of the year but the clover keeps the quality in the sward I feel. Where possible, I avoid taking out paddocks where clover has been over-sown or included in the mix at reseeding as it can take over and lead to management issues such as bloat.” Figure 1 shows the annual grass yield on the farm. Interestingly, the best performing paddocks are the reseeded ones, containing a mix of Abergain, Aberchoice and Drumbo with 1kg/acre of film coated clover.
Tips for successfully establishing clover
Oversowing
The cheapest way to introduce white clover on your farm is to over-sow (broadcast) it on existing grassland using a fertiliser spreader, slug pellet applicator or similar machine during late spring or after an early cut of silage.
Follow these simple steps for best results:
1 Get a soil test. Soil P and K index of 3 and a pH of 6.0 to 6.8.Clover is not tolerant of low pH. 2 Get weeds such as docks under control before introducing clover. Herbicides that don’t kill clover are usually quite expensive. 3 Seed-to-soil contact and high soil moisture are essential. Ideal conditions are an open sward (eg after first cut silage) where soil moisture is likely to remain high for the next four to six weeks.4 Over-sow at a rate of 5kg/ha. This can be achieved with a fertiliser spreader by mixing the seed with a zero-N fertiliser (eg 0:7:30). The seed and fertiliser will separate in the spreader during motion, and should therefore be mixed regularly during spreading.5 Spread no N fertiliser for the remainder of the year. This may result in lower herbage production from this area during the year of sowing, but is essential for the establishment of the clover. 6 Graze the sward tight and late into the autumn, and graze again in early spring. Try graze at lower covers 8cm (1,000kgDM/ha). *Reseeding is a more expensive option but might be recommended to establish more productive perennial ryegrasses on old grassland. The above principles for over-sowing clover also apply to establishing clover in a reseed.
We are already in the fourth week of our BETTER farm challenge review and this week we take a look at the green farming challenge.
The objective of this challenge was to establish more clover in 20% of swards across the whole farm with the end goal being to cut fertiliser costs. The challenge proved to be a popular one among farmers, with 10 in total opting to take part.
Variable costs across all farms in the BETTER programme have increased since 2017, mainly down to weather-related events.
While output has increased too, gross margins still leave a lot to be desired, much of which can be attributed to beef price.
As the average R3 steer price for the last week in November stood at €3.42/kg (23c/kg back on the same week for the previous year), all beef farmers should be extremely eager to cut costs on farms and the inclusion of clover may be one such solution. You might wonder how.
Every 1kg of fertiliser N now costs roughly €1 making it quite expensive to artificially fertilise swards.
White clover, on the other hand, has rhizobia bacteria in its roots that “fix” nitrogen from the air, and this has the potential to supply 50-200kg N/ha per year.
As a result, increasing the clover content in grassland can result in increased herbage production and quality leading to increased liveweight gains at grass. Two farmers who took the challenge in their stride were Ken Gill in Co Offaly and Tommy Holmes in Co Mayo.
Co Offaly
Ken Gill operates an organic system in Clonbullogue, Co Offaly, and invariably has no choice but to rely on clover to fix his nitrogen.
“I’ve over-sown and stitched in clover before but it can be a struggle to get it established if soil fertility isn’t correct,” he says.
But while white clover is existent in all his grazing paddocks, it is the red clover that is driving serious productivity on the farm.
Ken explained: “You can get three cuts a year and should be targeting 25 bales/acre in total. I’m probably not hitting this at the moment, because my soil P and K indexes aren’t great – a common problem in organics as you can appreciate.”
The red clover is very important as it provides a high-protein (16-18%) feed that, when offered alone, gives very good performance in his beef stock.
“I don’t want to be buying expensive organic concentrates,” he added.
Furthermore, he said “I’ll be back a little on the red clover ground with the rotation for 2020 so will be sure to maximise the potential of the ground I do sow red clover in.”
Table 1 shows Ken Gill’s red clover baled silage which was tested on 10 October.
Co Mayo
Tommy Holmes in Ballina, Co Mayo, has turned to clover not only as a way to reduce his fertiliser bill but to increase the ADG on grazing bulls, particularly in the latter half of the year. The medium leafed cultivars work best, complementing his intensive grazing policy.
He said: “It’s hard to keep the quality in the grass, especially in the back end of the year but the clover keeps the quality in the sward I feel. Where possible, I avoid taking out paddocks where clover has been over-sown or included in the mix at reseeding as it can take over and lead to management issues such as bloat.” Figure 1 shows the annual grass yield on the farm. Interestingly, the best performing paddocks are the reseeded ones, containing a mix of Abergain, Aberchoice and Drumbo with 1kg/acre of film coated clover.
Tips for successfully establishing clover
Oversowing
The cheapest way to introduce white clover on your farm is to over-sow (broadcast) it on existing grassland using a fertiliser spreader, slug pellet applicator or similar machine during late spring or after an early cut of silage.
Follow these simple steps for best results:
1 Get a soil test. Soil P and K index of 3 and a pH of 6.0 to 6.8.Clover is not tolerant of low pH. 2 Get weeds such as docks under control before introducing clover. Herbicides that don’t kill clover are usually quite expensive. 3 Seed-to-soil contact and high soil moisture are essential. Ideal conditions are an open sward (eg after first cut silage) where soil moisture is likely to remain high for the next four to six weeks.4 Over-sow at a rate of 5kg/ha. This can be achieved with a fertiliser spreader by mixing the seed with a zero-N fertiliser (eg 0:7:30). The seed and fertiliser will separate in the spreader during motion, and should therefore be mixed regularly during spreading.5 Spread no N fertiliser for the remainder of the year. This may result in lower herbage production from this area during the year of sowing, but is essential for the establishment of the clover. 6 Graze the sward tight and late into the autumn, and graze again in early spring. Try graze at lower covers 8cm (1,000kgDM/ha). *Reseeding is a more expensive option but might be recommended to establish more productive perennial ryegrasses on old grassland. The above principles for over-sowing clover also apply to establishing clover in a reseed.
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