Red Clover Establishment

GrassCheck Podcast

We are bringing you the audio recording of a webinar we held recently on establishing red clover silage swards.

The webinar was held as part of the ZeroNsile project which has established red clover swards on 12 farms across Northern Ireland and Lucerne on three farms in County Down.

Dr David Patterson (Grassland Agronomist from AFBI) started by looking at the results of previous Red Clover research carried out by AFBI and Teagasc. This highlighted the ability of red clover to grow high yields with no inputs of manufactured N fertilisers. He then discussed the key steps needed to successfully establish red clover silage swards. This included seed bed preparation, timing of sowing, having a soil pH of at least 6.5 and the P & K requirements of a clover reseed. He also discussed sowing rates for different sward types and variety selection.

Two farmers from the ZeroNsile project (Stephen Maguire a Beef farmer from County Fermanagh and David Clarke, a dairy farmer from County Tyrone) discussed their experiences of establishing red clover silage swards on their farms as part of the ZeroNsile Project. 2023 was a particularly challenging year for reseeding due to the adverse weather conditions. Nevertheless, both farms said they were planning to establish additional red clover swards in the future.