Optimisation of internal clover-grass use on livestock-free farms "Opti-KG" (2019 - 2023)

Project objective: The overall objective of the project is to optimize the on-farm utilization of clover grass on organic livestock farms along the supply chain from cutting to application. The focus will be on low-loss conservation of clover grass, efficient utilization of nutrients, and economic evaluation of clover grass transfer methods. Project structure: The consortium of practitioners, consultants, and scientists has set the scientific and technical goals of (i) developing a clover-grass composting process with a focus on minimizing nitrogen losses, (ii) to determine the fertilizer effect of the composts comparatively with other clover-grass transfer processes in multi-year field trials, and (iii) to evaluate the economics (line-cost calculations) of different clover-grass fertilization strategies to improve nutrient management based on practical production and application methods and make them available for practical use.

Work packages:

1. optimize composting process

• Determine suitable C/N ratio
• Determine appropriate material mix of clover grass, straw, and woody structural substrate
• Determine suitable conversion frequency
• Determine appropriate timing and amount of delayed addition of N-rich substrate.

2. test fertilization effect of clover-grass fertilizers

• Conduct a total of four field trials with summer and winter cereals for comparative testing of the composts produced

3. economics of different clover-grass transfer strategies.

• Identification of typical farm constellations
• Creation of a cost-performance model taking into account nutrient flows and technical and monetary elements for the analysis of individual farms
• Implementation of practical model calculations