Improving productivity and reducing costs is the ultimate dream for livestock farmers facing sluggish prices and low margins, particularly in dairy.  However, recent research shows that introducing red clover as a silage crop could achieve just that, by bringing significant advantages in terms of input reduction and increased nutritional values.

With good ensiling techniques, red clover can also be successfully baled, providing flexible feeding options that deliver excellent nutritional requirements for different types of stock.

Key benefits of red clover silage

  • High yielding silage crop
  • Less fibrous than grass
  • Highly digestible
  • Twice as much protein as grass
  • Up to 20% higher intake
  • Requires little or no nitrogen fertiliser
  • Offers affordable home-grown protein
  • Proven to increase animal performance - both milk and meat
  • Good for aerating soils and improving soil structure
  • Offers a wider harvesting window than grass
  • Significant cost savings over grass silage

According to The Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS) - one of the founder members of the new Silage Advisory Centre created to promote the benefits of baled silage as a modern grassland and forage management tool - alternative forage such as red clover can offer nutritional and cost benefits over grass silage.  The crop is also less fibrous and highly digestible, leading to a 20% higher intake that in turn increases animal performance in terms of both milk and meat.

Red clover

"Introducing red clover into ‘on-farm’ grown crops can reduce requirements for bought-in supplements as they provide a source of affordable home grown protein, offering between 14 and 20% crude protein, of better quality and quantity than grass," says Dr Dave Davies, Silage Researcher and Agricultural Outreach Manager at IBERS.  "Not only that, but such legumes ‘fix’ their own nitrogen which leads to further savings in fertilizer costs."

Cost savings

Research carried out at IBERS indicates the cost saving per ha/annum of a red clover silage sward - compared to a perennial ryegrass sward with 200kg of N fertilizer applied - was in the region of £103, with no reduction in forage yield, a system which could have particular benefits in dairy.

Cost Analysis Chart
A tractor wilting red clover

"We found that dairy farmers currently applying 200kg N/ha/year in fertilizer could be able to significantly reduce their nitrogen applications without a reduction in forage yield if they put white and red clover in their grazing and silage leys respectively," continues Dr Davies.

Red clover is traditionally high yielding as a silage crop at 13t DM/ha/year, equivalent to Italian/hybrid ryegrass with 250 units of nitrogen/acre.  The crop also provides benefits in rotational systems, with the enhanced soil fertility resulting from clover making other crops in a rotation more profitable.  Soil is aerated and structure is improved, and farmers benefit from a wider harvesting window than that provided by grass, as quality in terms of digestibility does not drop as rapidly as grass once the crop has flowered.

Farmers interested in establishing red clover should sow from mid-July to the end of August in a fine, firm, level seed bed. It can be drilled 1.5cm deep or broadcast, and either over-sown in to existing sward or under-sown in a cereal crop in the spring.  Red clover fits well into a rotation with 5-8 year gap between croppings, and a three year productive ley can be anticipated.

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