National Dairy Conference Questions Answered: Are you considering red clover?

All this week Teagasc Specialists answer the unanswered questions from the Virtual Dairy Conference on the Dairy Daily. Today's question - Are you considering red clover (as well as white clover) for silage or grazing ground? is answered by the dairy farmer speakers, Kevin Moran and Ger Pardy

With rising fertiliser prices, particularly fertiliser nitrogen, there were a number of questions asked of the farmer speakers regarding the use of red clover on their farms.

Are you considering red clover (as well as white clover) for silage or grazing ground?

Kevin Moran's answer

Kevin Moran said the following with regards to red clover. “We’ve a 15 ha out farm that is used mostly for 2-3 silage cuts. I plan to establish red clover on one third of it next year. The reason why I’m not over sowing it all is that I’m told that the red clover has a lifespan of around 3-4 years so I plan to use a combination of over sowing and conventional reseeding one third of the out farm with red clover each year for the next three years. This way we’ll ensure that the section doesn’t completely run out of red clover at the same time in a few years’ time”. 

Ger Pardy's answer

Ger Pardy, Offaly said the following about clover incorporation. “We’ll incorporate red clover into the silage swards on the out blocks and into the grazing swards on the milking platform from now on. Red clover can fix nitrogen in its first year after sowing”.

See more on the Virtual Dairy Conference 2021 here.

The complete Dairy Conference Proceedings can be viewed here and the individual articles were published on Teagasc Daily throughout last week. See Teagasc Daily - Dairy for more.