Welsh Poultry Centre

How Clover can save you money,

I have, in previous articles, talked a lot about how a poultry enterprise fits in and contributes to an existing farming system. It seems to me that the farmer needs to consider not just the profitability of any one enterprise but how itcan make the wider farm more profitable.

In this context the poultry are likely to be moving around the farm in some form of rotation with the fertility that they leave behind them being exploited by some form of cropping.  Often this would place the poultry on the last year of a grass ley after which it is cultivated.

How Does Clover Work?

Nitrogen is all around us. About 78% of the atmosphere is nitrogen. However living things cannot use this free nitrogen until it has undergone a chemical change. Without that chemical change there would be no life on earth. Nitrogen is an essential element of amino acids, which are the building blocks for protein. Protein not only makes up muscles and other body parts it is also a basic building block of DNA, the genetic code of all living things.

The chemical process, which allows free nitrogen to be changed into a useable form of nitrogen, is called nitrogen fixation. In nature microorganisms living in our soil and water carry out the fixing of free nitrogen. Such organisms are abundant and include a few forms of bacteria, blue-green algae and certain fungi. It is upon these microscopic shoulders that life on earth depends.

The one we are interested in is a nitrogen-fixing bacteria that live in nodules on clover and other legumes. The roots of a plant are there to obtain nutrients for the plant and to protect the plant from other life forms, including bacteria that may want to take those nutrients. In the case of the clover, (and other legumes), there is a symbiotic relationship going on. The clover allows this particular bacteria, (rhizobia), into the roots and in return for nutrients, fixes nitrogen which can be utilised by the plant and surrounding plants. Neither the bacteria nor the clover can fix nitrogen on its own.

The next time you are outdoors find a clover and dig it up. You will clearly see the nodules as small bags hanging off the roots. It is one of the many reasons why soils are so important to us. We may walk about on top of it but we are ultimately as attached to it as any plant. Once you have considered this put the clover you just dug up back in the soil!

Why is clover beneficial?

There are several reasons why the introduction of clover into the grass ley is beneficial. Clover is a legume and therefore has the ability to fix nitrogen. This not only benefits the following crop it also benefits the grass in the ley. It has been demonstrated in numerous experiments that the inclusion of clover in a grass ley can fix between 120 to 250 kg N/ha/year.

Not only are you therefore getting more grass per year without needing to apply increasingly expensive soluble nitrogen fertiliser you are also getting a higher nutritional value from that ley. This higher nutrional value is not coming just from the clover, it is apparent also in the companion grasses. Chemical analysis of the companion grasses in a grass/clover ley show that the grasses contain on average 2.3% crude protein and 1.2% pure protein more than grasses grown without clover.

The comparison of chemical composition of white clover, grasses and grass/clovermixtures. Means from the years 1987-1991

Dr Piotr Stypiñski Department of Grassland The Warsaw AgriculturalUniversity

Not only do ruminants gain from the inclusion of clover in a ley, poultry do as well. Clover is high in protein and easily digestible by poultry. Poultry are not, of course ruminants, but it would be a mistake to assume therefore that they cannot derive any nutrientional benefit from forage.

Research carried out in America showed that poultry with access to grazing had three times the levels of omega 3 fats in their eggs than those without access, and the grass/clover mix was 18% higher than just grass. There was also twice the levels of vitamin E and 40% more vitamin A. Also noted was that the longer they were on pasture the more vitamins they produced. (from research carried out by: HeatherKarsten, Ph.D.professor of crop production and ecology in the College ofAgricultural Sciences, 251 ASI Building, University Park, PA, USA).

Clover also contains many minerals and trace elements that poultry benefit from, including carotenoids, which give the egg the rich yellow and meat a pale yellow colour. As well as the benefits of the clover itself this small, low-lying plant, when flowering attracts insects. Poultry are omnivores; insects, as well as providing protein, (an ant is 13% protein), are also a rich source of trace elements and minerals.

The addition of clover to your grass leys therefore contributes to the whole farm. It is saving on the purchase of soluble fertilizers, it is providing a higher protein diet for any ruminants, it is providing nutrients for following crops and it is providing nutrients for your poultry.

Ends article

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About the author

Stephen Merritt is a partner in The Welsh Poultry Centre and an accredited advisor and board member of The Institute of Organic Training and Advice and has spent over 30 years working in sustainable agriculture in developing countries, England and Wales.  In the last 10 years Steve has specialised in free range and organic poultry production and now offers on farm advice and training to this sector.