Key message
- Arrowleaf clover is a prolific seeder, but the challenge of managing it (slugs and poor strike of naturally hard seed) means that it is unlikely to have a role in a permanent pasture situation.
About the study site
Wairakaia, located in Muriwai district near Gisborne, is a 600 ha property farmed by Rob and Sandra Faulkner. It is a sheep, beef and cropping farm that is a mix of cultivatable land and medium to steep hill country. Annual rainfall is 100 mm. The property has had a focus on high performance forages on its flatter country for some years.
What was trialled
- The trial investigated the potential role for oversowing arrowleaf clover on uncultivatable hill country to increase productivity.
- The trial was undertaken on 4 ha of uncultivatable easterly facing hill and all spray and seed applications were carried out by helicopter.
- Arrowleaf was oversown (after being sprayed out) and allowed to set seed to attempt to create a seedbank of arrowleaf seeds.
- In order to allow the arrowleaf clover to set seed it was left ungrazed until after the plants had set seed.
- The trial area was oversown post the arrowleaf crop with plantain.
Key findings
- Oversowing was very successful in terms of achieving a one-off high-quality crop of arrowleaf clover yielding 10 t/ha in an ungrazed situation.
- Despite large quantities of arrowleaf seed set in Year 1 (425 kg seed/ha), germination in subsequent years was poor probably due to the hard seed (commercially available seed is scarified to increase germination).
- Beef cows found the plant material post seed set unpalatable and a large amount of trash was left which created a haven for slugs which negatively impacted seedling establishment of arrowleaf and oversown plantain.
- Arrowleaf clover is a prolific seeder, but the challenge of managing its means that it is unlikely to have a role in a permanent pasture situation.