The Clover Reporter with Kevin Moran
The Grass10 team would like to introduce you to a new section of the newsletter, The Clover Reporter. This section will give weekly reports and videos from farmers who have a lot of clover established on their farms. This week Kevin Moran, Dairy farmer in Galway talks about clover on his farm
Name: Kevin Moran
Location: Caherlistrane, Co. Galway
Enterprise: Dairy Farming
Soil Type: mix of free draining and clayey type soils
% Farm In Clover: 30 % 28 (ha)
% From Reseeding: 0 % (ha)
% From Oversowing: 100% 30(ha)
Clover content 2021: 25-30% on 25 ha
Clover varieties: Buddy (medium leaf size), Chieftain (medium leaf size), & Coolfin (small leaf size)
Seeding Rate/Ac: 2kg/ac - oversown,
Methods Used: Oversow – Eindbock and fertiliser spreader for quad
Why Clover?: It reduces the farms fertiliser bills, reduces the farms carbon footprint and increases output from higher milk sales
1st Rotation Management: Aim not to carry over high covers on high clover paddocks over winter. Clover paddocks are being grazed with freshly calved cows now and throughout March. We have installed good access infrastructure in all clover paddocks to minimise poaching.
Kevin’s Top Tip For Clover: Oversowing can be very unforgiving with little space for error. Do not try to do too much area at once, do a small amount and get it right in terms of soil fertility, early over sowing, no poaching, graze at 1000-1100 Kg DM/Ha Pre Grazing Yield for 4 to 5 rotations after sowing.
Find out more from Teagasc here about Clover
See the latest grass10 newsletter at: Grass10 Newsletter - 15th February 2022