Red clover allows sustainable intensification on beef farm

Double-cropping has made Farmers Weekly’s 2024 Beef Farmer of the Year self-sufficient in home-grown feed for his 1,600-head enterprise. 

Red clover is the bedrock of North Wales beef finisher Dylan Jones’s farming system.

He says it has enabled him to “sustainably intensify” output at Castlellior while becoming self-sufficient in home-grown feed and bedding, and lowering fertiliser use.

See also: Farmers Weekly Awards 2024: Beef Farmer of the Year 

Throughput has doubled, with 1,600 beef steers now finished and sold to ABP annually. Previously, Dylan had 40ha (99 acres) of arable crops under a seven-year rotation.

However, focusing on growing high-protein crops for the past 12 months has led him to move to short-term rotations.

Farm facts: Castellior, Anglesey

Part of Dylan Jones’s herd © Richard Stanton

• 340ha farmed
• Growing 45ha winter barley, 93ha spring barley,12ha summer barley (all crimped), 8ha peas, and the rest grass and red clover
• Finishing 1,600 beef steers, supplying ABP
• Buying 500-600 ewe lambs and selling them as yearlings

Rotations

The area of barley grown at Castlellior’s loamy clay soils near Menai Bridge, Anglesey, has tripled to about 149ha (368 acres). It forms part of a short-term rotation as a break crop following grass.

Barley is taken off in late June or early July at 27-30% moisture and crimped. Last summer, it yielded 8.6-9.8t/ha.

Nine days later, a forage crop comprising 111kg/ha of “summer” barley, 30kg/ha of fast-growing ryegrass, and 10kg/ha of red clover was sown.

No nitrogen fertiliser was used, and the crop was harvested on 15 September. Manure was applied when the field was ploughed.

A bicrop of peas (60%) and barley (40%) is grown on a further 12ha (30 acres). This is also crimped and delivers 26% protein.

In addition, 12ha (30 acres) of pure red clover – which Dylan has been growing for the past 20 years – are baled to give cattle the ultimate protein boost.

And about 30-35ha (74-86 acres) of grass leys are reseeded annually to keep them young (two to three years). Together, this is resulting in high-quality home-grown feed.

“I like to have a high-protein crop in the field all year. Because we are harvesting the barley two to three weeks earlier than if it was conventionally harvested, it allows us to sow grass and get a silage crop off that land in September.

“Double cropping maximises land use and, in the process, we are sinking more carbon by ensuring our soils are not bare,” explains Dylan.

Red clover, along with farmyard manure from the cattle, has helped him make huge savings on artificial nitrogen (N), with just 150-200kg/ha of N applied over four to five cuts of silage.

Protein diet changes

In the past month, he has reduced the amount of protein in finishing diets from 18% to 16%. “I had been monitoring the cattle and thought they were restless, dirty and standing for too long,” he says.

Previously, finished cattle (weighing 450kg plus) were fed a total mixed ration comprising 7kg of crimped barley (which last year averaged 10.5% protein and 51% starch), 1.5kg of peas, 10kg of red clover and grass silage, 3kg of red clover, and 1.5kg of haylage.

Dylan has reduced the protein by replacing 2kg of high-protein silage with haylage. He says cattle behaviour has improved as a result of the ration change, and growth rates have been maintained, at 1.66-1.74kg daily.

“By pulling protein back, cattle are happier and cleaner. One of my goals has been to prove we can reach our environmental goals on an intensive system,” explains Dylan.

He has achieved just this: the farm’s carbon footprint is one-quarter of the average for Welsh beef farms, at 3.9kg of carbon dioxide equivalent/kg beef liveweight. He says that success is down to red clover.