# Talk me out of raising red clover



## stack em up (Mar 7, 2013)

Every couple years I get the bug to try my hand at red clover for feed. Not sure why, just that some itches ya gotta scratch. I know feed value is actually better than alfalfa, just the fact it wouldn’t dry in a week in hell. Making cropping plans for 2019 and seeding some new fields of alfalfa is on the docket but I may have one low lying farm (if the family accepts the bid) that may be a good candidate for red clover. Talk me out of it or convince me my brain isn’t totally turned to mush yet.


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## bool (Mar 14, 2016)

I sowed some red clover in a 10 acre paddock a few months back. It was Rubitas, an Australian variety. I sowed it with Ohau ryegrass. Last week I cut the paddock for silage. The ryegrass looked great but I didn't see any clover plants.

It has the best flowers of any clover but only if there are plants for the flowers to grow on. Maybe some of it will grow next year.

Roger


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## IH 1586 (Oct 16, 2014)

If your plan is to plant straight clover and dry it I would not do it, however if your going to utilize it for silage or mix with grass then may not be as bad.

I plant a grass/clover mix at 20 lbs./acre and of that 3 lbs is red clover. The first 2 years there is a fair amount of clover but enough grass it's not bad drying down. After that it's not noticeable.


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## TJ Hendren (May 12, 2017)

If you have some wet ground Alsike would be a better choice. I planted red clover 4 years ago for hay mixed in fescue and the cows ate the fescue and left the clover.


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## cjsr8595 (Jul 7, 2014)

I do a lot of orchard red clover mix. I find red clover and alfalfa dry at about the same rate in our area. I've got a couple of fields of straight red clover that i cut for dry hay. It is definitely harder to get dry than straight grass, I cut it with my alfalfa. I would not want to try and get it dry in a low wet area.


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## Trillium Farm (Dec 18, 2014)

I've always used red clover as green manure, in my area very few feed it for fear of bloat, I can see value in a mix hay crop though.


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## endrow (Dec 15, 2011)

Baled alot as a kid . GrandPa said wait till the longest day to cut then it will dry . He said in Dutch let it lay till it is "black as a hat" then its fit to make. Even without rain when it was dry every time the plunger swung dark black dust flew that is why they said black as a hat. I can feel the clover dust in my lungs and eyes just thinking about it .Alsike was a little nicer to work with.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Red is great for fixating nitrogen......works especially well in mixed grasses. Matter of fact I am going to broadcast about 4#'s to the acre about the first of February on a 20 acre upland grass field.

Regards, Mike


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## IH 1586 (Oct 16, 2014)

endrow said:


> Baled alot as a kid . GrandPa said wait till the longest day to cut then it will dry . He said in Dutch let it lay till it is "black as a hat" then its fit to make. Even without rain when it was dry every time the plunger swung dark black dust flew that is why they said black as a hat. I can feel the clover dust in my lungs and eyes just thinking about it .Alsike was a little nicer to work with.


When I restarted the custom business I only had the open station tractor and my largest customer grew straight red clover. I hated round baling that. If you were going in the right direction was not bad, but when you had to stop to wrap that black cloud would surround you. Took 2 bales before you couldn't see the gauges. Twine wrap no net at that time.


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## Hayman1 (Jul 6, 2013)

red clover is the cheapest protein you can grow. Around here, you frost seed it in mid February. if you have a wet spring, it dominates, dry, hard to find. I used to use it with OG all the time. Really bulks up the bale and gets your tonnage up on a field. Problem for me is that horse folks don't like it much because it gives horses the slobbers, which they get bad enough in early aug when everything else in the paddocks is under severe stress. I also have a pretty aggressive weed control program so there goes the clover. Never had a problem getting it to dry even when I was using a sickle bar mower. about 4-6# max in Feb does the trick. Unfortunately, if you get impatient and it does not come on the spring you plant and you keep throwing seed down in subsequent years, you end up with a clover field the spring that is wet and that's a bummer unless you can green chop it.


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## SCtrailrider (May 1, 2016)

I'm planing to no till it into my hay fields this February. My Fescue reseeding didn't do real well in September for some reason, it was dry here and I might have planted a little deep.


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## Hayman1 (Jul 6, 2013)

SCtrailrider said:


> I'm planing to no till it into my hay fields this February. My Fescue reseeding didn't do real well in September for some reason, it was dry here and I might have planted a little deep.


I got real mixed results with my no till overseeding of OG this fall and it wasn't lack of water. What I don't understand is that it is thick as thieves one place and in the row next to it nothing. Almost new drill and no one else uses it. I am going to start putting some seed in the back box (usually used for alfalfa or clover) and let it drop on top of the ground so that no matter what happens, something should come up.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

My no-till seeding in the first part of October showed up very spotty like you fellas have mentioned. But the last ten days it seems to have really come on. I am not sure why, but it looks like it all didn't germinate at the same time. I only used one kind of seed.

Regards, Mike


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## siscofarms (Nov 23, 2010)

It'll dry better than you think . Just get it spread out . I cut it one day and ted it early the next morning with dew on it . I would not trade it for alfalfa for cow feed . And , atleast around here , its much easier to grow .There is a difference tho . Check out your local field trials to make sure to get what you want . Some varieties are better suited for pasture then it is hay production , and vise versa .


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