Pure clover ups the ante in South Otago
Coaxing more out of an intensive system that’s already producing well can be easier said than done.
Taking legumes a step further.
But strategic use of straight clover on Ashton Glen Farms at Clinton in South Otago is giving the Mitchell family a double win—extra kilograms of red meat per hectare, plus free soil nitrogen and better grass weed control for subsequent cereal crops.
What started as a tool to benefit their arable rotation is now growing enough high-energy feed to finish hundreds of bought-in store lambs as well as their own.
With 200 ha in sheep and beef, and 200 ha in crops, Ross, Ruth, Byron and Callum Mitchell have spent years refining their system to make the most of the land. That includes breeding stud Coopworth and Beltex rams; finishing dairy beef; growing cereals and specialist small seeds like Asian brassicas, and running a well-established perennial garden plant nursery.
Livestock carrying capacity averages about 12 stock units per ha. Regular re-grassing, thanks to the arable crops, combined with a highly productive flock of 1,000 commercial ewes, means they can wean most surplus lambs onto the truck at good weights before Christmas, and easily finish any tail enders.
Sowing pure clover has long helped control troublesome brome and other grass weeds in the crops, which in itself is a massive benefit, Callum Mitchell says.
But now, they’ve taken this a step further, shedding multiple-bearing ewes off pasture and onto paddocks of Reaper red and Demand white clover straight after lambing. Set stocked at 12 ewes per ha, there was enough clover available last spring to grow lambs at 380 grams per day for approximately 90 days, till weaning.
Just as importantly, ewes weaned in good condition and needed no preferential feeding after.
Next came store lambs bought for finishing, rotationally grazed through the three paddocks at about 20 lambs per ha, and gaining approximately 20 kg liveweight each before they too were sent for slaughter.
“Those lambs were all cream on the top,” Mitchell says. “Per hectare returns from the clover paddocks are competing with our arable crops.”
A fourth paddock of Reaper and Demand was sown spring 2024 to take the total land area in straight clover to 20 ha.
With good management and careful weed control in establishment, the Mitchells are budgeting on three years of high clover yield for meat production before either oversowing with ryegrass, or planting wheat.
In either case, they’ll benefit from free nitrogen, naturally fixed at 25–28 kg N per kg clover dry matter grown every year, as well as improved soil structure from Reaper’s taproot.
“It does take about a year to fully establish, so you’re probably only looking at 50 per cent of potential growth in that first 12 months,” Mitchell says.
“But because we’re not pugging it, and grazing it mostly with light stock, conditions are about as good as they get for persistence of red clover in particular.”
So how do home-bred lamb growth rates compare for those raised on clover, vs those on pasture?
“Last year there was a 30 g per head per day difference—380 g per day for clover lambs, and 350 g per day for the ones on high quality young pasture. It’s not huge, but it is enough to turn over our own lambs faster, and get stores on sooner.”
Reaper red clover and Demand white clover are available from Cropmark Seeds.