Silage Advisory Centre

Maintaining and increasing clover content in the swards, while keeping the docks under control, is an ongoing battle, says beef and sheep producer Neil McGowan.

But he feels the battle is worthwhile at the 486ha (1200-acre) family farm, near Blairgowie. It is allowing low levels of bagged nitrogen to be used on grazing ground with good white clover content, typically 50kg of N/ha. 

White clover has been over-seeded into grazing swards after weed control or because there was little there when the family came to the farm in 1994. In young swards, Neil finds they only need one pass of the harrow, but older swards need three passes to get rid of the matt before seeding on the fourth pass. “And, because seedling vigour is important, we use coated seed.”

For silage, Neil uses red clover to fix all of the crop’s nitrogen and because he finds it greatly improves fields. “Two years of red clover turned our worst barley field into our best barley field,” he says. The 2-3 year leys which include Italian ryegrass are established under whole-crop. Two cuts are taken before using them to graze finishing lambs.

Care is also taken with phosphate levels which are kept topped up to promote clover, with an annual 70kg/ha. 

When it comes to using the clover swards, he believes it’s vital to control sward heights, which means moving cattle and sheep around as necessary. “We operate systems to suit the farm, and then use genetics to suit the system,” says Neil.

The genetics must allow low labour input, with good maternal traits, while achieving high reproductive success and good growth from grass.

For the 50 cow Simmental Suckler herd the focus is on breeding for maternal traits, including ease of calving and eye muscle. A third of the herd are naturally polled. These calve in March/April, with heifers calving at two years old, a month after the cows, and all going straight out to grass after calving.

But Neil is starting to favour his Luing cattle. “The Luing cows eat less than the Simmentals and need lower plane of nutrition,” says Neil.

The 120 Luing cows – originally a Beef Shorthorn x Highland cross but recognised breed since 1966 –  are thrifty and hardy. These produce good finished purebred steers off grass at 18 months old, at 320kg deadweight. And, there is no creep fed to Luing calves until they are introduced to trough feeding two weeks prior to weaning.

The 1150-ewe sheep flock includes 300 pure Lleyns and 60 pure Texels, which are performance recorded with Signet. The focus is on breeding for longevity and prolificacy and Neil reckons electronic tagging has made this recording easier.

The Lleyn ewes are lambed outside in May and no concentrates are fed, although a forage crop of swedes helps support them through the winter. Those assisted at lambing are recorded and culled.

Neil’s aim is for a ewe to produce her own weight in lamb in 100 days, which means keeping the right quality of grass in front of them. Finishing lambs on red clover leys which is high in protein is also proving successful and there have been no health problems with the lambs on clover.