Growth rates and persistence of annual and perennial clovers

Abstract

The temporal productivity of monocultures of four annual and two perennial clover species was quantified in a summer dry environment at Lincoln University, Canterbury. In 2019, cultivar affected (P<0.001) yield in early spring with ‘Viper’ balansa producing 5.0 t DM/ha compared (P<0.05) with 3.5 t for ‘Arrotas’ arrowleaf, 3.2 t for ‘Antas’ and ‘Woogenellup’ sub clovers, 1.6 t for ‘Kopu II’ white clover and 1.2 t for ‘Relish’ red clover. After a dry autumn in 2020, white and red clovers regrew, but only ‘Napier’ and ‘Woogenellup’ sub clovers re-established from seed. By September 2020, ‘Woogenellup’ sub (4.3) and ‘Relish’ red (3.7) clovers had higher dry matter (t/ha) yields than ‘Kopu II’ white (2.8) and ‘Napier’ sub (2.2). In contrast, autumn 2020 re-establishment of arrowleaf, balansa and Persian clovers was poor, and each yielded <0.5 t DM/ha by September and were dominated by weeds. These results confirm poor re-establishment of these top flowering clovers in their second year, and recommendations for their use as specialist one-year crops. The earlier growth profiles of the annual compared with perennial clovers highlighted their potential to increase early spring feed supply to meet requirements of sheep in dry regions.