Crops: One farm's approach to diversification - add red clover to your crop rotation

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Oliver Haan and his wife Renate are finding that underseeding barley with single cut red clover is proving a useful source of feed and saving him $200-$250 an acre

by MARY BAXTER

Oliver Haan has big plans for red clover and he thinks the crop could benefit traditional cash croppers, too.

Haan and his wife, Renate, run a mixed farm operation on the back roads of Hastings County. Their primary product is frozen pork that is direct marketed, along with beef and other locally produced items such as vegetables and meat pies, at several area farmers' markets. They also sell their pork direct to restaurants and caterers, as well as through a local food marketer. The medication-free pork comes from their 85-sow, farrow-to-finish closed herd.

Raising beef cattle and selling small-baled straw and hay are other ways the Haans put their 475 workable acres to use. Straw is a "phenomenal market to be into these days," says Oliver. Last year, he sold out of the small bales, which sell for $2.25-$3, and expects to do the same this year. 

The couple grow their own feed partly to complement their marketing strategy. "That's part of the story," says Haan, explaining that, rightly or wrongly, the average consumer who supports local food movements takes issue with many modern agricultural practices. "You have to be prepared to answer questions regarding manure usage, fertilizer usage, crop usage and GMOs (genetically modified organisms)."

A belief that sustainable practices and diversification are the keys to establishing a steady farm income is the other reason Haan has decided to grow his own feed. He came to this conclusion in 2001, when "soy prices and pig prices all went in different directions." At the time, the Haans ran a 1,600-head capacity finishing operation that faced other challenges as well. "We just realized there was no way we could continue doing that," Haan says.

On the crop end of things, a sustainable approach has meant revising goals to obtain reasonable yields consistently with a low cost of production. The approach reduces theneed to pay out "a lot of money upfront," as well price volatility in crop inputs.
Adding red clover to his rotation fits well with Haan's revised cropping goals, perspective on farming and marketing strategy. He was inspired partly by local dairy farmers who use the clover as a cover crop when growing silage corn. They would leave it over winter and harvest in early spring before planting corn.

Red clover is well known to farmers. The plant, Vermont's state flower since 1895, was a common component in crop rotations until 20 years ago, valued for its ability to add nitrogen to the soil and improve soil structure and prevent erosion. Typically, it is seeded into winter wheat in the spring and chemically controlled or plowed under in late fall after the wheat crop is harvested. Growers haven't used it as much in recent years because of troubles with obtaining a uniform stand.

"That's a real problem," says Bill Deen, an associate professor in the University of Guelph's department of plant agriculture who specializes in cropping systems. If a uniform stand can't be achieved, it becomes difficult to calculate a nitrogen credit for the crop – the major reason behind adding the crop to a rotation. Farmers end up not applying the credit and add nitrogen the next year to make up for the loss. This solution can create nitrogen-rich zones, which can pose environmental issues, Deen says.
Deen and others at the university have been studying why it has become so difficult to achieve a uniform stand with red clover, looking at everything from row spacing, nitrogen rate and tillage system in wheat to seeding date.

Drought stress appears to be the major problem. When the crop is planted is a factor – "early is definitely better," Deen says. Increasing the nitrogen rate on wheat and the type of tillage system are other potential factors. He points out that growers started to become concerned about stands at about the same time that no-till winter wheat production systems began to grow in popularity. Research has shown that red clover doesn't do as well under no-till winter wheat; removing residue and adding some tillage will improve the stands, he says.

Some blame the problem on higher wheat yields. Deen says there is a relationship between wheat yields and stand establishment of the clover, but there are examples in the university's research of growers who have been able to produce high wheat yields and still establish clover stands.

Deen is a fan of red clover. Along with its ability to add nitrogen (at a rate of 60-70 kilograms per hectare) and improve soil structure, studies show that it can increase corn yields six to eight per cent, he says. It also has the ability to depress soil nitrate levels in the fall. "Presumably that's a good thing, because there's less nitrogen to be lost," he says. Research at the university is indicating that red clover may have a positive effect on other crops in a rotation and may lead to higher carbon levels in the soil.

Breeding development could help address the problem of uniform stands, but that takes money and generating funding interest in a crop that has fallen out of popularity is a hard sell, he notes.

Haan says the only problem he's experienced with red clover is this year, when it started to compete with the barley. He farms on soils that range from light loam "to some plain, nasty heavy clay." The clover appears to be doing well in all types and thrived this year in a field with heavy clay soil.

Haan underseeds barley with single cut red clover applied at a rate of about 10 pounds per acre. The seed costs him $2-$2.50 per pound. Both crops are planted at the end of April or the beginning of May. The barley is grown on hog manure, so it needs little fertilizer. The underseeding almost eliminates the need for herbicides for the barley crop, he says. The clover crop starts slowly and is left over winter.

Two years in a row, now, he has no-tilled into the stand when it comes time to plant grain corn. In 2008, he added urea and ammonium nitrate (UAN) and dry fertilizer to one section, but only added dry fertilizer to the other. There was no difference in yields, so this year he didn't use UAN on the corn that followed red clover. One third of his 2009 85-acre corn crop follows red clover.

In both years, he harvested the clover after planting corn, but next year he will cut first. "On no-till, you can pull the bales off at the same time as you plant," he explains. "By the time you cut and bale, the hay will be the equivalent of spring tillage."

The challenge is not to compact the field, he adds, explaining that this is why he would use round bales for the haylage rather than forage wagons.

Haan says he has found that applying Roundup and Banvel to kill off the remainder of the clover works best within a week of the corn planning. Herbicide costs are higher because of no-till and he estimates these to be $30-$40 per acre.

Along with achieving savings on inputs, he is also generating feed to finish his cattle. Quality haylage sells for about $35 a bale and he estimates it costs him about $15 per bale to produce the red clover haylage.

According to a 2006 fact sheet by Joel Bagg, the province's forage specialist, the nutritional quality of red clover haylage is similar to alfalfa,  though red clover is more difficult to cure as dry hay. It has the added benefit of taking longer to break down in the silo, which means its bypass protein count is about 10 per cent higher than alfalfa. Red clover haylage also has a higher fibre digestibility than alfalfa.

Ultimately, Haan estimates he will save between $200-$250 an acre by adding red clover. The biggest challenge he anticipates is weather forcing a choice between harvesting the haylage and putting corn into the ground.

Though he is growing for his own use, he figures there might be merit in the approach for cash croppers, too, especially if the cost of nitrogen fertilizer rises again. Farmers could keep the haylage themselves and diversify their operation or sell to a neighbour. "Part of sustainability in agriculture will be going back to some form of diversification on the farm," he says.

But growers should be prepared to adjust their corn heat units. "A small reduction in (crop) heat units will get you from silage corn to grain corn," he says, noting that he usually uses two to three seed varieties that range from 2,800 CHU down to 2,550 CHU. BF