Clover and farming

[Chris B]

I had a timely conversation with our neighbour yesterday. He farms about 100 acres surrounding our home apiary and 10 acres are being reseeded as permanent pasture next week. I asked about clover, and it turns out 8% of the seed mix will be white clover. Previously there was no clover because artificial nitrates were applied, so clover wasn't needed to fix the nitrogen in the soil. But times change and fertilizer prices being linked to oil, it's becoming financially realistic to fall back on good old clover as a good value alternative.

Anyhow, he also agreed to throw in an extra 10kg of wild clover seed if I paid for it (around ?10/kg) so we'll see what happens. We do get a little clover already in our honey (I've seen the bees working our lawn for a start) but it's not a big yielder. If the experiment proves a winner (for both of us) maybe we'll see the remaining 90 acres converted in future.

I get the impression we could all be seeing a bit more clover in future. If so it will be good news for me - I reckon it could extend our honey season by 2 weeks locally.

Is clover a trend noticed anywhere else by anyone?

Chris

 

[Frisbee]

Organic farmers like it, but sometimes mow before it flowers.

I've been offered some for this year. One of my mentors says it's a haphazard crop, some years it yields well others not, but I've no experience myself so will have to wait and see.

Frisbee

 

[Poly Hive]

The clover type that yields is "wild White" the commercial varieties with the long stalks and big heads are not much use

Also the best producing areas are some distance from the sea but not more than 8 miles as it likes salt... and 8 miles is about the limit for blown salt.

PH

 

[Frisbee]

The clover type that yields is "wild White" the commercial varieties with the long stalks and big heads are not much use

Also the best producing areas are some distance from the sea but not more than 8 miles as it likes salt... and 8 miles is about the limit for blown salt.

PH

Ahhhhhhh...............bit tough for us in leicestershire then.

Frisbee