Harvesting clover seed?

[Anonymous-0]

I have an older brother in KY who is interested in growing about 15 acres of clover (variety begins with an "h" I think) to help with honeybee production.

His plan is to harvest the seed once it finishes flowering, then bale off the material.

Is this possible? Is there a special combine head needed to harvest clover? Can you then bale what's left?

I told him that he might have trouble finding a market for the clover hay. He lives in horse country outside of the Shaker Village area, but the horse folks won't touch clover. And if he's baling after it's already gone to seed, he's going to be baling some tough old clover.

What do you all think?

 

[Anonymous-0]

Based on my experience with red clover, after windrowing it and letting it dry then using a pickup attachment on combine there is nothing left to bale.

 

[Anonymous-0]

So the seed is harvested after the clover is down and dried?

 

[Anonymous-0]

Some of the best combines for small grass/clover seed, are the old A/C's with the rubber coated cylinder bars. Some small operations still use them today. There might not be much you could bale after running thru the combine. Depends on how dry it is when combined. Most first windrow and then use a pickup header, although we did direct cut some clover many years ago. I'm sure some cow/calf operations could use the residue. It would have as much/more feed value than baled corn stocks.

 

[Anonymous-0]

You can harvest clover seed with two methods. Standing or windrowed. Cutting and windrowing first and then allowing to dry produces the most seed per acre. It however requires a pickup attachment for the combine. Allowing the clover to dry "standing" and then driect cutting with a platform head on the combine is the method of choice in my area.
There is more stubble left with the standing method of combining. Most "stubble clover" that is baled in my area is essentially worthless from a nutritional standpoint. It's best used for bedding. Feeding it is better than feeding a snow bank however.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Whats the return on a good stand of clover ? I only know of one old fella that did it one time about 15 yrs ago . He let it lay in windrows and used a MF 300 to combine it .

 

[Anonymous-0]

The yields in our area are from 100-400 pounds of seed per acre. The average yield is probably 150-200 pounds. Most guys are happy with 200. The seed usually sells for around $1.00-$1.25 per pound. It's one hot job.........late July early August.