Please tell us more about Alice clover.
Do you know its botanical name.
Where does it originate?
You may have to drill in or oversow and harrow or trample in, Italian
ryegrass which grows quickly and low endophyte fescue, orchard grass
and timothy, but this should be done in early spring.
Make sure that you get the best variety of each. There are big differences.
Sheep, by grazing short discourage grasses and encourage clovers. Try
and avoid grazing short.
Farms I've been on in Maine have also had high clover levels because
it is easy to frost seed and because of the high fertility and
excellent mineral levels, particularly magnesium and calcium which
clovers thrive on.
This analysis is from a dairy farm at Whitefield, Maine and is typical.
Pasture herbage analysis in % and ppm.
Optimum Analysis
% Nitrogen N 4.50 4.80
% Phosphorus P 0.45 0.43
% Potassium K 2.80 2.40
% Sulphur S 0.40 0.31
% Calcium Ca 0.80 1.40
% Magnesium Mg 0.24 0.34
% Sodium Na 0.20 0.15
ppm Iron Fe 150 175
ppm Manganese Mn50 31
ppm Zinc Zn 45 48
ppm Copper Cu 13 10
ppm Boron B 22 17
ppm Molybdenum Mo 1.50 1.22
ppm Cobalt Co 0.13 0.11
ppm Selenium Se 0.20 0.02
ppm Iodine I 0.50 0.22
I have 20 pages on bloat control, too much for graze-l. Let me know
if you'd like it direct.
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Paula and Sumner Roberts [mailto:meadowsweet@prexar.com]
>Sent: Tuesday, June 03, 2003 7:23 AM
>Subject: clover suppression
>
>Hi all,
>I'm looking for suggestions on how to reduce clover in my pastures. I've
>done a lot of frost-seeding Alice white clover into pastures on "native"
>grasses such as bluegrass, timothy, orchardgrass and some 'mudded in' meadow
>fescue. The alice is persistent and productive and aggressive and now
>dominates many of the pastures, leading to problems with bloat. We lost a
>couple of ewes last year and have had to treat couple already this year
>even though it has been cold enough the clover only started growing well
>last week. I'm trying to controll the situation by moving in the
>mid-afternoon and by grazing my finishig steers ahead of the ewes, they seem
>to be more resistant to bloat, I assume because they are unable to avoid
>eating a lot of grass in their big mouthfulls. But I fear I may be setting
>us for more trouble ahead, as the ewes grazing the paddocks quite close,
>with the likely result that as the weather warms the clover will grow even
>better and denser and we'll have pastures that are 70% clover as we did in
>some areas last year. I was hoping nature would solve the problem as high
>clover levels produced N and encouraged more grass growth, but don't see
>that happening. I'm also wondering if Alice is paticularly bloat promoting.
>
>Keeping in mind that I have no farming equipment such as sprayers, plows,
>harrows etc. (I do have haying equipment, a cyclone seeder, a manure
>spreader, and cattle, sheep, and horses), what can I do? We are nearly
>organic by preference, but I am considering applying synthetic N fertilizer.
>How much would it take to suppress the clover?
>Sumner Roberts
>Meaadowsweet Farm
>Swanville, Maine USA
>
>
>
>
>
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--
Best wishes,
Vaughan Jones
Hamilton
New Zealand
