Why does my pasture look like this?

All of these symptoms results from poor clover growth and hence the lack of clover N (ie free N from the atmosphere) going back into the soil. Thus the soils and pastures looks like they are N deficient and adding fertiliser will improve them BUT the real problem is that the clover is not growing because one of the 16 nutrient it required for optimum growth is not present (K or S or P or Mo deficiency are the main problems).

Correcting the nutrient problem and get the clover growing overcomes the N deficiency. Remember that clover N is about 5 times cheaper than fertiliser N.

Did you know:

• Clover needs 16 nutrients: it gets its N from the air but we must feed it the other 15 nutrients
• Clover N is 5 times cheaper than bag N?
• $15,000/yr is the amount of free clover N going into the average dairy farm (100ha)
• $50,000/yr is the amount of free clover N going into the average drystock farm (500ha)
• Clover has a higher requirement for all nutrients compared with grasses?