Sean Moher: Fine-tuning a red clover system

This has put us back on track with regard to target covers for this time of year and gives us the added bonus of extending the rotation of the clover paddocks, which is beneficial for stolon development. The clover content is back a bit this year - most have about 30% to 40% clover - but I’m quite happy with this level as I still get the full benefits.

In other years, some have gone over 50% clover. With a high stocking rate on the milking platform, thoughts are now turning to closing paddocks. As we have more clover fields year on year, to compensate for the reduced growth during the winter months, we have started closing the non-clover fields earlier.

It used to be October 4, but now the first of three non-clover fields will be closed from September 28. With a large number of cows calved early, there’s no issue with graze-outs in the spring. They’ll probably be grazed in late February or early March. It’s recommended to have lower covers on the clover fields for the winter, so we’ll close them up a bit later.

The multispecies continues to perform well. It got 18 units of a protected area 18-6-12 product after the last grazing. The cows really skin the ground between the dung patches before they take a nip out of the stronger grass and herbs.

As seems to be the case everywhere, the clover in this year’s red clover silage reseed isn’t as dominant as in other years, but there’s still plenty there. 

This is the third year for the red clover fields. Red clover content has definitely reduced over time; this year, at a guess, it’s back by maybe 20 to 25% from when it was set. 

For now, it doesn’t seem to be an issue, as the white clover makes up for this loss. One small field has a roadway beside it, and the slurry tanker follows the exact same route each time. Red clover seems to hate any machinery traffic. 

It’s not as noticeable in the other field as the slurry tanker takes different routes each time. There’s definitely a case for using the umbilical slurry system on red clover. I’ve read that it’s a good idea to let the red clover flower at least once a year. The field was alive with bumblebees and other pollinators this week.

In an earlier article, I shared my experience with the AGNAV portal. This brings information from Bord Bia, ICBF, and some inputs from ourselves. With this information, the system will tell you about your greenhouse gas and ammonia emissions. 

When you access the portal, you can adjust a number of variables on a sliding scale, your use of protected urea, low-emission spreading equipment, etc., and the system will recalculate the effects these changes have on your total emissions. This is useful as you know what actions are going to work for your farm. As any business will tell you, you can’t reduce something without first measuring it. 

In the latest model, we were also able to calculate our nutrient surplus, which can be an indicator of nutrient loss risk. In our case, we had a 102kgN/ha surplus, which is below the national average of 158kgN/ha. 

To access AGNAV, you first need to sign up for the Teagasc Signpost Advisory Program (which is free). With the current debate on derogation, this will be a very useful tool.