Seaton Park Subterranean Clover

We recommend Seaton Park Sub Clover. It is best suited to neutral to alkaline, light to medium, well-drained soils, including cracking and self-mulching or stony loams and clays. It is a black-seeded, mid-season sub clover that is very persistent, even under heavy grazing. Inoculate with Group C rhizobia.

Seaton Park Sub Clover thrives under set stocking and can be grazed moderately hard while flowering. It is prostrate, so it can be shaded out by taller plants if grazing is too lax. It is readily eaten green or dry by sheep, beef cattle and horses, and it has very good spring growth.

We recommend 15 to 20 kg/ha of Seaton Park Sub Clover when sown on its own and 6 to 10 kg/ha in a mix. Inoculate the seed with Group C rhizobia before sowing. Sow shallow into moist soil at the break of the season for the best establishment.

Seaton Park Sub Clover is readily eaten as green or dry feed by horses, sheep and beef cattle, and it makes good hay and silage. It has low levels of formononetin. As with any clover, introduce stock gradually to lush pasture, and keep a grass component in the mix for balance.

Seaton Park Sub Clover is frost tolerant, which makes it useful in colder districts. It is a mid-season variety with good spring growth and suits higher rainfall areas. It does not tolerate too much waterlogging, so for wet paddocks we suggest our Riverina Sub Clover instead.

This is a false-break loss, and it is more common in sub clovers with lower hard seed, such as Seaton Park. Seaton Park is also shallow rooted, so it can die early in a dry spring. In false-break-prone areas, we suggest a more hard-seeded variety such as our Urana or Dalkeith, or a mix.

We do not recommend Seaton Park for a tight rotation of one year of crop and one year of pasture, as its hard seed levels are not high enough for reliable persistence. It is better suited to a short to medium pasture phase, or to permanent pasture in higher rainfall areas.

Seaton Park Sub Clover has good resistance to Phytophthora root rot and better disease resistance than Dalkeith. It is susceptible to clover scorch and leaf spot, so watch for these in wetter seasons. For resistance to both root rot and scorch, our Riverina Sub Clover is also worth considering.

Mid-season varieties such as Seaton Park need a longer growing season than early types. Our 2026 guide lists 425mm+ for Seaton Park, while older tech sheets give ranges starting at 400mm or 475mm. It flowers about 108 days after sowing at Perth, so it suits districts where the season runs into October.

Choose Urana for well-drained, acidic to neutral soils in 400mm+ areas where you want strong winter growth and more hard seed. Choose Seaton Park for neutral to alkaline loams and clays, heavy set stocking and good spring growth. Seaton Park flowers slightly later than Urana and has better root rot resistance.