Clovers Seed

Sub clover buries its burrs in the soil, which protects the seed from grazing and makes it very persistent under set stocking. Aerial-seeded clovers such as balansa, bladder, gland, Persian and arrowleaf set seed above ground, so they need a spell from grazing to seed up, but they're easier to harvest and several are hard-seeded enough to regenerate after a cropping phase.

Balansa clover is our first choice for paddocks that waterlog in winter, and Persian clover also copes with wet feet. If you want a sub clover, choose a yanninicum type, which tolerates waterlogging far better than standard sub clovers. Where there's summer moisture, strawberry and white clover persist on wet ground. Pair the legume with a waterlogging-tolerant grass such as ryegrass or tall fescue.

Clover usually thins out when it can't rebuild its seed bank. Common causes are heavy grazing through flowering, false breaks that kill seedlings of soft-seeded varieties, low phosphorus, potassium or molybdenum, soil acidity, and red-legged earth mite. Spell the paddock through spring so it can set seed, check a soil test, and if the variety is poorly suited, resow a better-adapted, harder-seeded one.

Yes. Some older sub clover varieties are high in formononetin, a plant oestrogen that causes 'clover disease', lowering lambing percentages and, with long exposure, causing permanent infertility in ewes. Modern varieties are bred to be low in formononetin. If you have an old clover-dominant pasture, keep ewes off it around joining, or renovate it with a low-oestrogen variety.

Prevent bloat by keeping clover well under half of what cattle eat, filling them with hay before they go onto lush clover, and using bloat oil or capsules through high-risk periods. Risk peaks on lush, clover-dominant spring pasture, especially white, Persian and balansa clover. Keep grass in the mix and watch stock closely for the first few days on a new paddock.

Most annual clovers, including sub, balansa, bladder, gland, arrowleaf, rose and crimson clover, use Group C inoculant. White, red and strawberry clover, and berseem, use Group B. Persian clover is sold as Group O or Group C depending on the supplier, so check the pack. Inoculation matters most in paddocks with no recent clover history; keep inoculated seed out of the sun and sow it promptly.

A useful rule of thumb is about 20–25 kg of nitrogen fixed for every tonne of legume dry matter grown, so a dense clover pasture growing 4–5 t/ha can fix around 100 kg N/ha in a season. Much of it becomes available to the following crop or pasture as residues break down. Good inoculation, enough phosphorus and molybdenum, and high clover content all lift the total.

In WA it's most often red-legged earth mite, which leaves silvery white marks on leaves, or lucerne flea, which chews clear windows in them. Both can wipe out a new stand quickly. Check seedlings closely for the first few weeks, spray if numbers build, and cut next autumn's mite numbers with a spring spray timed using the TIMERITE tool. Insecticide seed treatments add early protection.

Persian, berseem, arrowleaf and balansa clover make the best hay and silage because they grow upright and bulky. Persian and berseem regrow well after cutting and suit wetter or irrigated paddocks, arrowleaf gives bulk late into spring, and balansa handles waterlogging. Cut at early flowering for quality, and if you want the stand to regenerate, leave a strip to set seed.

Arrowleaf clover is a good option: it's a late-maturing annual with a deep taproot that keeps growing into early summer on stored moisture, in areas with about 400 mm of rain or more. It needs well-drained soil. Persian clover also finishes late. For green feed right through summer, look at lucerne on deep soils or perennial clovers under irrigation.