From what I’ve heard/read from Iowa State research (Dr. Ken Moore) clovers will cause shade avoidance response in corn just like other species will. Dr Moore tested ~30 different species and they settled on Kentucky bluegrass as the most compatible. I haven’t been able to find all the details but I’m pretty sure kura clover was one that they tested.

Rather than butchering it trying to explain the effect I’m going to copy and paste from a research paper. I can send the full text if interested:

While acknowledging resource competition between more aggressive groundcovers and maize, Flynn et al. [107] suggested that the shade avoidance response (SAR) by maize likely plays an important role in reducing yield when it is grown with less competitive groundcovers. Shade avoidance is triggered by a reduction in red:far red light associated with increased absorbance of red light by the actively growing groundcover. Mediated by a phytochrome response, maize senses potential competition and alters its growth to avoid it [108,109], a response that occurs similarly in other species [110]. As a consequence, stem elongation accelerates and leaf development is somewhat retarded [111,112]. Grain yield is reduced because SAR is often associated with lower seed set. This conjecture is yet to be definitively proven, but it explains many of the observed effects when maize is grown with less aggressive groundcovers. If real, it provides scope for reducing the need for chemical suppression of the groundcover by developing groundcover varieties that go dormant early in the growing season. Genetic variation among maize germplasm for sensitivity to red:far red light should allow development of elite hybrids that are insensitive to the presence of a groundcover. These, however, are long-term strategies for mitigating SAR and for the time being groundcover suppression will be necessary to prevent triggering SAR by developing maize plants.