Red Clover & Multi species swards - something to consider in 2025?

Kevin O’Hara, Drystock Advisor, highlights a key opportunity for farmers applying for BISS, considering the Red Clover Silage Measure or Multi-Species Sward (MSS) scheme. With €300/ha available, these options can boost forage quality, reduce fertiliser costs, and enhance sustainability.

All farmers in the coming months will be completing their BISS applications and something to consider when completing this application is the red clover silage measure and / or the multi species sward (MSS) scheme which can be applied for within the BISS application. The principle behind the two schemes is to encourage farmers to reduce their dependence on artificial N fertilisers while also improving the quality of the silage and grazing grassland on their farms. 

The 2025 payment is €300 per hectare, up-to a maximum area of 20 hectares for the establishment of a Red Clover Silage mix or a multi species grass sward sown between the 16th July 2024 and 15th July 2025.  This payment rate will generally cover much of the seed cost and possibly some of the cultivation so is well worth looking into if considering some on farm reseeding.

Red clover and MSS can be sown from April to mid-July. Sowing in the spring gives greater forage yields of up to 60% during the establishment year and the first harvest year than later sown crops. Seeds should not be sown deeper than 1cm, to ensure seedlings have sufficient energy to emerge.  A fine, firm seed bed is required to ensure contact with the soil, which is essential for good seed establishment. The use of a roller prior to and after sowing is recommended. Soil testing is important, especially after ploughing, as a pH of 6.0-6.5 and Index 3 for P & K are necessary for successful establishment. These crops have high P & K demands and farmyard manures such as slurry and dung can be used to help reduce overall costs of establishment

Red clover benefits

The primary benefit of red clover on farms is the ability to capture or ‘fix’ nitrogen from the air and feed it into the soil and surrounding plants.  It can supply 200kgs N/ha/year (3.5 bags urea/acre/year), driving grass silage production with outputs of 12-15 tonnes of dry matter/ha possible if managed correctly. High quality red clover silage has multiple nutritive benefits including high crude protein content, which reduces the need for concentrate feeds, high mineral content, especially magnesium, reducing the risk of animal diseases and disorders linked to mineral deficiency, high palatability compared to grass silage, leading to higher intake and increased live weight gains or milk and protein yields. Red clover can also be useful to fatten store lambs in the back end of the year as it will not be economical to harvest light crops for silage later in the year

Red clover drawbacks

While there are many positives to crops such as red clover there are other issues to consider before sowing it. Generally it is not suitable to graze with heavy livestock, for a number of reasons, 1) Cattle can get bloat if grazing large volumes of the crop in a short period, 2) it generally does not tolerate damage which can be caused by grazing and will ultimately die out of the sward leaving only the grass crop behind, 3) issues with breeding ewes on the crop. Red clover contains varying amounts of phyto-oestrogens, which may be linked with lower conception rates in breeding ewes. For this reason it is recommended to keep ewes off red clover for six weeks either side of mating. This also applies to red clover in silage.

Weed control can also become an issue in crops if poor post emergence weed control is achieved. As clover is susceptible to most broad leaf herbicides the time to manage weeds is before sowing with the fields in question been burn off before cultivation and also with a good post emergence spray which is clover safe after sowing.

Multi Species Swards benefits

Multi Species Swards incorporate in high levels of both red and white clover, plantain, chicory and additional herbs along with grass seed. Because of the high levels of clover there is very little need for artificial N fertilisers but as with the red clover silage they will require some supplementation of P & K but this can be in the form of farmyard manures and slurry. There is also noted animal health benefits with these MSS crops with reduced animal wormers needed and many believe they are higher in minerals and trace elements due to the addition of the deep rooting chicory and plantain. They are also much more drought resistant than traditional reseeds (something that won’t worry many here in the West).

Multi Species Swards drawbacks

The main issue many face with Multi Species Swards is weed control. As plantain and chicory are broad leaves there is no chemical control for other weeds such as docks and thistles which means weed control pre sowing is critical to maintain a clean sward after sowing.

All in all, there and many pros and cons to the crops, they are suitable to all farming sectors but the management of the crop is key if yields and persistency are to be achieved.

For more information contact your local Teagasc office or seed merchant.