Cover crop and soil improver
Red clover can be planted in autumn in order to provide cover to the soil during winter. An N-fixing legume, red clover can be used as green manure: it provides about 4.2 t DM/ha and 93 kg N/ha to the soil. Used as cover in orchards, red clover smothers spring weeds and improves soil tilth (Satell et al., 1998).
Estrogen contamination
Feeding red clover to ruminants may lead to the release of phytoestrogens in the environment through animal excretion. Phytoestrogens are recognized as endocrine-disrupting chemicals, responsible for growth and reproductive impairment in aquatic species when discharged into water (Harrison et al., 1995, Crisp et al., 1998 cited by Tucker et al., 2010).