We put up our own hay and it is mostly alfalfa, sanfoin, native grass mix. Every few years if conditions are just right we will get heavy sweetclover in the fields. This will be the 1st year that is shapeing up to look like a sweetclover year that we will have cattle being fed the hay. I have heard that sweetclover is not good for cows, my BF likes it as it doubles our hay production. What are your thoughts on useing sweetclover as hay over winter for cows that will calve mid to late May. That will give them about a month off of hay and on pasture before they calve. We do have 2 fields of hay that are all brome grass, but they are smaller fields and we wouldn't get enough from them to last the winter. One large round bale lasts about a week, so I thought that it might be OK if we would feed one bale of the sweetclover and then one bale of the brome. Any thoughts on doing that. I would really hate to sell our hay just to have to buy from someone else.
Sweetclover hay question
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Tim/South
Well-known member
I am not familiar with the term "sweet" clover. Is it just clover in general or a specific type of clover?
I like a clover mix hay. So do our cows. We also make our own hay and the challenge with clover is getting it dry. It is a legume and takes longer to get the moisture level down than the grass it is growing with. We keep the tedder going when we cut clover/mix. We are refurbishing one hay field and clover will be in the blend.
Horse people generally do not like clover because it makes the horse slobber more than usual.
I like a clover mix hay. So do our cows. We also make our own hay and the challenge with clover is getting it dry. It is a legume and takes longer to get the moisture level down than the grass it is growing with. We keep the tedder going when we cut clover/mix. We are refurbishing one hay field and clover will be in the blend.
Horse people generally do not like clover because it makes the horse slobber more than usual.
hurleyjd
Well-known member
I think she may be referring to Hubam Clover.
Sweet clover is a fairly tall upright growing plant and is frequently confused with serecia lespedeza since they do look sort of similar.
http://hayandforage.com/other-forages/e ... clover-hay
http://hayandforage.com/other-forages/e ... clover-hay
Nesikep
Well-known member
I'm not exactly sure what causes it not to be good for the cows anymore, perhaps it's like lupines that contain an alkaloid. I'm also not sure if drying makes it more palatable.. There are also several types of sweet clover.. Most of them smell a bit nutty when you swath them. Sweet clover are not an ordinary clover, they are more similar to alfalfa, but will often grow to 5 ft, have yellow or white flowers, and have a leaf shape quite like that of alfalfa as well
Lucky_P
Well-known member
Tim,
You're unlikely to see much sweetclover (Melilotus officinalis) in AL; maybe a little in extreme N. AL, but would be pretty uncommon there, as well. Nothing like white/ladino, red, crimson, or arrowleaf clovers you'd be familiar with - it's a semi-woody biennial that grows about 4-5 ft tall, with yellow or white flowers.
Toxicology/poisonous plants courses I had always mentioned 'moldy sweetclover hay' - but I'd never even seen the plant, much less fed any hay containing it, until I left The South for the Midwest (MO), where I mostly saw it growing along the roadsides and in edges of crop fields.
The plant contains coumarin - which, is converted to dicoumarol, a powerful anticoagulant, if the plant material gets moldy after being cut for hay (rained on, incompletely dried before baling, etc. Moldy sweetclover hay can cause excessive bleeding.
Seems like I've seen claims that it's not very palatable in the standing state, for cattle, and they often avoid it or, at least, don't graze/browse it very heavily.
Being a legume, it does fix atmospheric nitrogen - and has a very deep taprooted root system, so withstands drought conditions well.
You're unlikely to see much sweetclover (Melilotus officinalis) in AL; maybe a little in extreme N. AL, but would be pretty uncommon there, as well. Nothing like white/ladino, red, crimson, or arrowleaf clovers you'd be familiar with - it's a semi-woody biennial that grows about 4-5 ft tall, with yellow or white flowers.
Toxicology/poisonous plants courses I had always mentioned 'moldy sweetclover hay' - but I'd never even seen the plant, much less fed any hay containing it, until I left The South for the Midwest (MO), where I mostly saw it growing along the roadsides and in edges of crop fields.
The plant contains coumarin - which, is converted to dicoumarol, a powerful anticoagulant, if the plant material gets moldy after being cut for hay (rained on, incompletely dried before baling, etc. Moldy sweetclover hay can cause excessive bleeding.
Seems like I've seen claims that it's not very palatable in the standing state, for cattle, and they often avoid it or, at least, don't graze/browse it very heavily.
Being a legume, it does fix atmospheric nitrogen - and has a very deep taprooted root system, so withstands drought conditions well.
skyhightree1
Well-known member
dun":1harfgfs said:
dun thanks for the link I was clueless to what it was.
Tim/South
Well-known member
This thread has been an education for me. I thought the clover name would make it akin to the clovers we see here.
Thank You to those who have shared their insight.
Thank You to those who have shared their insight.
hurleyjd
Well-known member
I think it a good soil builder and also bees can produce a lot of honey from its nectar.
The type we have come up is the yellow flowered and yes it does get 5+ feet tall. The horses don't eat much of it while it is growing, the cows will but we don't have much in any of the pastures. The big problem is, as soon as you break ground to plant anything else it comes in like wild fire and you just can't kill it. It does have a very sweet smell, almost like honey and both the horses and cows love it as hay. It needs just the right growing conditions before it fully expresses its self, but when it does that is pretty much all you see and the hay ends up being 70-80% Sweet Clover.
We always condition our hay, and make sure its dry before we bale, so then it should be OK as long as it isn't moldy?
We always condition our hay, and make sure its dry before we bale, so then it should be OK as long as it isn't moldy?
Lucky_P
Well-known member
So long as it's not moldy, my impression is that it's OK - and good forage. Mold growth is required to convert the coumarin to the active dicoumarol.
I have no real experience with it - saw it regularly in MO; never saw it when I was growing up in AL, rarely see it here in KY/TN.
Actually planted some 15 years or so ago, in a CRP bufferstrip deal, but don't know that I ever saw any evidence that any of it came up.
I have no real experience with it - saw it regularly in MO; never saw it when I was growing up in AL, rarely see it here in KY/TN.
Actually planted some 15 years or so ago, in a CRP bufferstrip deal, but don't know that I ever saw any evidence that any of it came up.
In this area sweet clover, at times ,grows every where. We have hayed it and silaged it and it is damn good feed BUT beware of it if it gets moldy!!! When I was a kid we lost 27 yearling steers one night from sweet clover bloat[called that because they swell up and bleed to death under the skin or internally] Those that did'nt die took most of the summer to recover. This said we have and will continue to use it for feed when ever we can and will seed it on some years if it is needed. Have had up to 11 ton of silage and it is wonderfull feed .When we stacked it loose years ago we salted it as we stacked and it came out of those stacks as pretty as any feed you ever saw. The seed will sometimes l lay in the ground for a few years and have seen mile upon mile of solid yellow everywhere, and smells so sweet and fresh. When we plant clover we seed it with a grain crop and harvest that off and the next year we harvest the clover. Dad and the old uncles always said it fertilized the land so the following year the crops would really respond.It is trully a good nitrogen fixer and have seen nodules on some root as big as a fair sized potatoe. I have no idea if the yellow clover will grow just anywhere and white seet clover is usually so big and coarse that its not worth raiseing. Quite a few organic wheat farmers grow it with their wheat and claim it helps to control weeds. A lot of grain farmers criticize us for seeding it as they consider it a weed.
aprille218
Well-known member
Sweet Clover (both fresh and baled) also causes photosensitivity (looks like very bad sunburn on any white or light area) in some horses.
Lucky_P
Well-known member
Have never seen any references to photosensitization associated with sweetclover (Melilotus officinalis.
Rhizoctonia spp. fungi (mold) growing on alfalfa, white/ladino, and red clovers, have, however, been documented to cause photosensitization in horses - and I've seen it, in horses grazing pastures with white clover.
Rhizoctonia spp. fungi (mold) growing on alfalfa, white/ladino, and red clovers, have, however, been documented to cause photosensitization in horses - and I've seen it, in horses grazing pastures with white clover.
