Ploughing: Ireland’s first home-bred red clover named top sustainability innovation
Patrick Cashman of Goldcrop with FEARGA red clover variety. Picture: Dan Linehan
Ireland’s first home-bred red clover variety has already generated a buzz in the Innovation Arena at this year's National Ploughing Championships.
FEARGA, the clover variety bred at Teagasc Oak Park, picked up the Sustainable Agriculture Award at this year's show. It's also generated a bit of friendly cross-border rivalry in trials.
"So far the only official trials have been in England and Wales... and it came out with better yields and better persistence than anything currently available on the market.
"It was funny that it was the first Irish variety ever bred and it’s turned up being better than anything else," said Patrick Cashman, who is based at Goldcrop's site in Carrigtwohill, Co Cork.
Mr Cashman explained that better persistence means better long-term yield and less frequent reseeding - a major challenge particularly for establishing red clover swards.
“It’s very exciting because it brings traits better adapted to the Irish climate and the Irish farmer," he said.
Red clover is about €20 a bag more expensive than normal grass seed, however, Mr Cashman explained that its high protein content, and the fact that farmers don’t have to spread chemical nitrogen on the crop, means that it can generate returns very quickly.
"Red clover will produce more nitrogen, but it has a single point of weakness – it grows from a single crown. The root can’t move. But the plus side is that it’s more suited for silage swards because it’s more aggressive and can produce more nitrogen making better quality silage,” he said.
The next step will be to include FEARGA in official trials in France and Germany to verify its suitability to those areas. Seed is expected to be made commercially available in autumn 2023.
