Inspiration from around the globe to improve clover use in Ireland

Since taking over the management of the family farm from my parents 24 years ago, I have made all the right and wrong management decisions about clover.

Today, we use clover in our farming system to build resilience and to increase animal performance while reducing our reliance on chemical nitrogen, reducing workload and reducing our farm’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Knowing that we can do more with clover and having farmers asking how they might do the same led me to complete a Nuffield scholarship on the topic in the last two years.

Benefits of clover

Though Ireland is known for grassland farming, clover use has fallen in and out of favour over the last half-century. It has been perceived as complex to manage and more associated with organic or extensive farming.

In the last number of years, we have seen an increase in the price of chemical nitrogen fertiliser, but also issues around supplies, together with growing pressures from the United Nations (UN), European Union (EU) and our own Government to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture.

Nitric oxide accounts for 37% of these emissions which is linked to chemical fertiliser usage and clover is a possible solution to some of these issues.

Clover has always been part of grassland farming. A simple three-leafed plant found in our grasslands, it is known for two main reasons.

The first is its ability to fix nitrogen from the atmosphere, by forming an association with a bacteria called rhizobium which can be found in nodules on the roots of the plant

The second is to increase animal performance with extra liveweight gain or higher milk output.

There are two clover species mostly used in Ireland, white and red clover. The white clover we know today came about as a result of two clover species crossing during the last European Ice Age some 15,000 to 28,000 years ago and in Ireland, we mostly use medium-leafed clover.

Red clover originates from south east Europe and is best suited and used in forage grassland such as silage and hay.

Global answers

The objectives of my studies were to find the obstacles that prevent more Irish farmers from using clover and to find workable solutions that would allow for greater incorporation of clover across Irish farms.

I also looked at the role of clover within our co-operatives’ sustainability programmes and how these programmes may help in farmer uptake and knowledge transfer.

To find the answers to these objectives I met with farmers, advisers and researchers in Ireland, Canada, Germany, Singapore, Borneo, Brazil, New South Wales, Tasmania and the UK.

I saw both white and red clover used in different farming systems from livestock to arable, both organic and commercial.

While in Denmark I saw clover being used on an organic dairy farm to fix nitrogen and increase forage grown to feed the cows. I also saw a future use for clover as a dried green feed to replace imported protein feed in piggeries.

These clover crops were grown on arable farms as a break crop and provided an extra source of income.

In New South Wales I experienced the use of different clovers and legumes such as birdsfoot trefoil, vetches and sainfoin being used in grazing swards to increase growth, animal performance and reduce the risk of bloat.

In Tasmania, clover was an important part of multi-species swards to fix nitrogen and reduce the use of chemical nitrogen.

Consumers’ concerns about how the food they are buying impacts the environment have led to co-operatives and other food processors developing sustainability programmes for their farmer suppliers.Within these programmes, farmers receive an extra payment for specific measures they apply on their farms.

While in England and Wales, I met and interviewed members of the sustainability teams from Clawson cheese makers (called the Care365 programme) in Leicestershire and the Dunbia group in Wales (Taste the Difference).

Some of the main points of interest from these two programmes were the farmer engagement from one-to-one meetings, ongoing training, subsided seed costs and higher payments for farmers who are completing extra actions over the standard level on their holdings.

Recommendations

What I have learned helped me define recommendations I believe we should implement in Ireland:

Bryan Daniels is a dairy farmer from Co Kilkenny. A graduate of Kildalton Agricultural College, Bryan returned home to farm in 1999 where he converted the dairy and beef farm to a fully dairy enterprise.

He has previously been awarded Teagasc Student of the Year, Teagasc Overall and Sustainable Farming Grassland Farmer of the Year and FBD Young Farmer of the Year.