The value and methods of introducing white clover

White clover is the pivotal legume in organic grassland. It fixes 

The second benefit of white clover is that it increases animal production, whether in terms of higher milk yield for dairy cows or faster growth rate in beef cattle and lambs. The extra production is derived from the higher intake of white clover compared with grass of the same digestibility and also from its higher protein content. 

There are two basic methods of introducing white clover into the sward. One is to plough the field up and sow it as part of a seeds mixture, and the second is to slot seed into an existing grass sward. In both cases the clover proportion can be changed by subsequent management. 

The second and third instances of clover increase on organic farms concern a hill farm in Wales and another in Scotland. In both cases the farmers felt that they should plough up their fields and resow to a grass and white clover mixture, mainly because the swards were thin, low yielding and only had small quantities of white clover present. In the case of the Welsh hill farm which was over 400 m high near 

In 1991, at the start the proportion of white clover on the field was less than 5%. The figures for white clover in 1992 after the addition of 

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