A place for white clover in the ‘BMW’ region?

After developing and sharing blueprints for profitable grazing dairy systems in the Border, Midlands and West (BMW) region, the attention at Ballyhaise Farm turned to white clover in 2020.

Now in its third full year of production, Grassland Researcher at Ballyhaise, Donal Patton joined Teagasc Dairy Specialist, James Dunne, on a recent episode of the Dairy Edge podcast to share insights from this research work.

As previous grazing studies in Ballyhaise had been reliant on chemical nitrogen to grow grass, the latest research aims to identify the role white clover can play in the typical soil types of the area, and to what extent white clover inclusion can lead to a reduction in chemical nitrogen input.

When establishing the project, it was hoped that clover inclusion in grazing swards would allow the rate of chemical nitrogen applied to be reduced by 50% - something particularly important given the direction of travel in terms of regulatory change and an increased focus on environmental efficiency.

To quantify the impact of white clover inclusion, two systems were established at Ballyhaise – a grass-only system and a grass-white clover system, with cows balanced across both to understand the impacts of performance, the feed budget and farm profitability.

Unlike commercial farms where typically 10% of the area is reseeded on an annual basis, Donal explained, an accelerated establishment system was used - including both reseeding and stitching in white clover - to identify how white clover would establish and persist on soil types representative of those in the BMW region.

This accelerated programme, Donal noted, did have impacts on the overall feed budget in the first year, as growth rates dropped on both the grass-only and grass-clover swards due to the additional area being reseeded – a practice carried out on both to ensure the results were representative.

Growth rates recovered in year two – the first full year of production - with both swards producing 14t DM/ha. Interestingly, however, was that this level of performance was achieved from a chemical nitrogen input of 85-90kg/ha of chemical nitrogen on the grass-white clover swards, whereas the grass-only swards received 225kg/ha of chemical N. A similar trend in terms of growth and nitrogen input was witnessed last year.

This reduction in chemical nitrogen input was achieved by tailoring chemical nitrogen input to the level of white clover present in the sward and was realised as 55-60% of the grass-white clover swards have a sufficient clover content to reduce chemical nitrogen input from May onwards.

Growth rates this year and clover contents were also discussed on the podcast, with Donal noting that poor growing conditions have resulted in a slight dipping in clover contents, but he expects total chemical nitrogen input to the grass-white clover swards to remain below 120kg/ha in 2024.

For more insights from the clover study at Ballyhaise, listen into Donal’s conversation with James Dunne below:

Upcoming open day

Farmers interested in finding out more on the role white clover can play in the BMW region can gain more insights by attending the upcoming Ballyhaise’24 – Dairy Open Day.

Taking place on July 24 at 10am at Teagasc, Ballyhaise College, Ballyhaise, Co. Cavan. Eircode: H12 E392, the theme of the event is ‘Futureproofing Dairy Farm Systems’.

Topics to be discussed on the day include:

• The importance of grassland measurement, N fertiliser application strategy, and soil fertility
• The impacts of clover on animal and pasture performance at Ballyhaise
• Recommended practices to establish white clover in grazing swards
• A modern breeding strategy for high profit dairy farming – focusing on EBI/DBI/Sexed semen and 100% AI
• Financial performance of dairy systems – focusing on re-establishing high profit margins, cost inflation, system creep and appropriate stocking rate (SR)

In the below video, Brendan Horan, Helena Walsh and John Joe Collins provide an overview as to what will be discussed on the day:

More information on the Ballyhaise’24 – Dairy Open Day is available here.