Red clover is the lesser used clover on Irish farms, with white clover being more common.
However, as farmers come under increased pressure regarding input costs and environmental emissions targets, this may change.
On the recent Goldcrop farm walk at Solohead research farm, Agriland heard about the red clover silage fields on the farm.
Red clover
Dr. James Humphries, the researcher based at Solohead, explained that a lot of farmers are interested in reducing the chemical nitrogen (N) used on their out-block or silage ground.
James noted that at the farm they don’t have much experience with red clover yet, but can confirm the following findings.
Last year was the first year that a red clover sward was grown on the Solohead farm and it achieved 15t of dry matter (DM)/ha from three cuts and zero grazing.
James said it could potentially be grazed by livestock in the backend of the year, but research suggests that this can shorten the life of the red clover.
The sward consisted of red and white clover along with perennial rye grass.
The red clover should last about five years, according to James, following which the white clover will boost growth for a couple of years before reseeding will be required.
Reseeding silage ground every seven years is a large cost of farmers, but James reminded farmers that you are saving on N use that whole time, which makes this option much cheaper.
The crop gets 3,000 gallons of slurry and two bags of 0-7-30, repeated three times.
James noted the the rule of thumb used on-farm is 25kg of potassium (K) and 3kg of phosphorus (P)/t of DM you expect to take off.
Crop quality
Giving some insight into the quality of the crop that can be obtained, James said: “It is often sold as high quality, high-protein silage but in reality, that’s not true.
“Red clover is much harder to ensile. In terms of sugar and buffering capacity, water soluble carbohydrates are very low compared to ryegrass.
“It needs to be wilted and if you couldn’t wilt it, you need to use something like molasses.”
The process on the farm used for cutting silage is to mow as normal and throw it out. It is then left for 48 hours before being baled.
Commenting on the dry matter of the silage and dry matter digestibility (DMD), James said: “Dry matter for the silage is coming in at 30-35%, DMD is in the low 70s, crude protein wouldn’t be exceptional.”
James described it as a good, bulky crop of silage obtained without N that is cheaper compared to conventional silage.