Winter Seeded Crimson Clover

[ERNIBIGB]

Will it work here on the southern edge of TN.
Haven't had much luck with other clovers in the past.
The pasture has quite a lot of old dead crabgrass the cattle didn't eat.
Soil contact and getting enough sunlight might be problems. (Burn it off?)
Could pull a shank type aerator if it don't choke up?
Trying to get some early growth and N then let the crabgrass do its thing a while then reseed pasture mix in the fall.

 

[Starting late]

I would try to seed your clover about Feb 20th or a little later. If you can get a disc to cut a little bit to open the sod up that would be a good idea. Another possibility would be to feed hay on the ground after seeding the clover and get your cows to trample the seed in for you. That will trick the cows into fertilizing it for you as well. I know some people on here will be able to help you with this next idea more than I can. I have heard of several people who mix it in with their mineral and let the cows do the seeding when they process the seed out the other end. Again, you would need to entice them with feed to get them to spread the seed where you want it. You may also want to consider forage peas no-tilled in after the danger of frost has passed in your area. A quality forage pea can yield up to 70 lbs. of N per acre for your grasses, plus they're excellent grazing. I intend to utilize the forage peas for strip grazing and to supply N to the grass crop that I'll rotate in this fall. Hope that helps.

 

[brandonm_13]

Crimson clover will work here. You can hand spread it, disc it in, or if you got snow like we did today, you can spread it across as it melts and it will work it into the ground. You can mix seed in with feed or minerals if it doesn't contain a chemical coating on the outside. Crimson clover usually doesn't, but white and red clovers do. Have you had your pH checked? If it's too low, clovers won't do that well on the soil. Crimson will do better than white or red because it can withstand a lower pH.

 

[Douglas]

Apache arrowleaf clover will reseed better but produces later in the spring (april and may) than crimson.
With nitrogen prices expected to fall this spring your might want to try the crimson next year.

 

[ERNIBIGB]

Well I got my little rig set up to try this. Herd seeder on my 4wheeler and trying something new. I have a Garmin etrex legend hcx handheld GPS mounted on the handlebar. I tried it a little today and it will track close enough to help me tell where to run in the field. I know the accuracy is not really all that close but I believe it will work fine for this use.