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Influences of ley age, soil properties, and geographical location on the herbage production of red clover-grass leys were determined under practical conditions on 27 organic farms located in the southern and in the northwestern coastal regions of Finland. Averaged over one-, two-, and three-year-old leys the accumulated first and second cuts produced 7.12 t dry matter herbage ha-1 year-1, with a clover proportion of 34.8%. Herbage production declined with increasing ley age. The average proportion of clover increased from 26.4% in the first to 43.7% in the second cut but decreased with ley age. Within- and between-field variations of clover proportions markedly decreased from the first to the second cut and strongly increased with ley age, while changes in the variations of herbage production were less pronounced. Within-field variations of clover proportions in the first and in the second cuts were higher at lower proportions of clover. Herbage production was positively related with clover proportion. Soil properties had a major impact on clover proportion and herbage production, largely explaining also regional differences in ley growth. Amelioration of fields and, not at least, of less fertile sites within the same field seems to be a crucial requirement for higher and more even clover proportions and herbage yields.;

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A novel agri-environment scheme for Environmental Fallow (EF) was introduced in Finland to replace a former obligatory CAP set-aside. Though potentially highly valuable, the ability of the current scheme for delivering the stated objectives of water protection, biodiversity, and soil state is yet to be confirmed. The presentation evaluates the role of the scheme for protection of surface waters and biodiversity based on data from the farmer interviews, field data on vegetation, and land-use register for the regions of Uusimaa, Pohjois-Pohjanmaa and Pirkanmaa. In 2010, over 7% of the agricultural utilized area was enrolled under the scheme with four types of fields: long-term grasslands, and fields sown with meadow plants, game crops or landscape flowers. The scheme has been highly popular among farmers but requires agronomic development of the options to reduce establishment failure, and optimise management for the best environmental output with the least agronomic problems. The potential of the scheme to protect surface waters is marginal since only 10% of EFs is situated near the water courses. The option of fallowing by establishing grassland, or by enrolling existing low productive grassland, was the most popular type of EF. The most biologically valuable meadow type remains rare, and the desired vegetation composition is non stable. The vegetation composition of the EF is more diverse than that under the former set-aside and also differs from that of other non-cropped biotopes such as margins and semi-natural grasslands. Plant species diversity correlated negatively with the reported fertility level of the parcels and therefore establishing grassland and meadow fallows on the least productive parcels is ecologically justified. However, possible targeting of the options according to the landscape setting should be investigated. At the current level, the scheme has succeeded to reverse the fallowing area to its state during the EU set-aside period. However, potential long-term efficiency of the current scheme is likely to be compromised by its untargeted and unbinding nature, and existing agronomic challenges in “sowing for nature”. Without a minimum required area, the scheme totally depends on the current and forecasted profit margin.