With regulation and cost influence reducing the amount of nitrogen-based fertiliser spread annually, clover is gaining more and more traction each year.

There is still a split in opinion when it comes to clover on farms however. There are those who are embracing it and trying to maximise its benefits, while another cohort is struggling with, or even ignoring, clover.

Many in the latter category are doing so as they are having real problems with getting clover established, and when it does manage to establish, they are finding great difficulty in managing it. This causes real frustration amongst farmers.

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The reality is however, that clover is here to stay and farmers need to start getting to grips with it. It’s an essential component of delivering on emissions reduction targets, while also having the capability to deliver greater profitability.

In saying this, it’s also important to note that clover is only part of the system and not the entire system. It must be able to perform in swards without the need to mollycoddle it.

Key areas like soil fertility, reseeding methods and grazing management have a huge impact on the success rate of clover. Farms need to get each one right, to see the plant establish and perform.

The other key area that often gets overlooked is the variety of clover that is used in swards. To help bring clarity to this, Teagasc is in the process of developing a clover profit index (CPI).

It will work in the same way as the PPI, except the focus will be solely on clover varieties and not perennial ryegrasses. The index is expected to be live as soon as next year.

Clover varieties

At the moment, clover varieties are only comparable based on total yield and clover content.

The CPI will look to encapsulate more metrics such as persistency, utilisation and the silage attributes of different varieties for fairer comparisons.

Right now some clover species may look strong on the recommended list based on their yields, but – in reality – might be struggling to persist in swards after year one and two and possibly dying out altogether.

There are four different types of clover on the recommended list. Very large-leaf, – which are not used as often – large-leaf, medium-leaf and small-leaf.

Very-large and large-leaf clover varieties tend to be higher yielding and aggressive, making them better suited to silage swards.

Medium-leaf is best suited to cattle grazing, with small-leaf clovers lower yielding but more persistent and well suited to sheep grazing.

As we can see from Figure 1, Clodagh is the highest yielding large-leaf clover. Research at Moorepark on Clodagh is that the clover is performing well with strong persistency.

Dundrum is a new clover variety on the list this year, topping the medium-leaf varieties. As it’s a new variety there is very little on-farm data available.

The next best medium-leaf is Dungloe, with plot trials at Moorepark showing very positive signs for the variety.

Coolfin is the highest yielding of the small-leaf clovers and is followed by Aberpeark and Aberace.