Deric Charlton -Agriculture
Annual Clovers Impress

Southland farmer Andrew Morrison recently tried growing two annual clovers - Bolta balansa clover and Leeton persian clover, with impressive results.

Andrew farms on rolling land at Willowbank, near Gore with his father and brother, and likes to evaluate new forage options on his 600 ha farm. He was told that these annual clovers should be autumn-sown, so he added the balansa clover at 4 kg/ha to an autumn-sown pasture mix. However, the clover didn’t move much until September – but then it went berserk, providing his hoggets with tremendous feed.

Andrew then decided to try sowing Bolta in October/November, at only 2 kg/ha with his summer turnips. Again its growth was quite impressive, with the turnips giving around 11 t DM/ha and Bolta adding at least two tonnes. “We obtained much better feed quality and a lot of nitrogen was fixed as well,” reports Andrew.“This combination is good for lamb finishing, and adds nitrogen and organic matter to my soils.”

Leeton persian clover has worked really well with swedes on other Southland farms for lamb finishing, though subsequent legume growth can be suppressed by the brassica.
“I’m still learning about using these novel forages,” says Andrew, “and am trying to fit in the annual clovers, and another annual forage, Double-Take triticale, into my feed supply as I think they offer something extra.”

Further details on these annual clovers can be obtained from Agricom NZ Ltd in Ashburton.

22nd April 2002
Dr Deric Charlton