Fertiliser Plan

Username John

Hello,

I am trying to plan at the minute when I'll have sheep lambing next spring. The big thing is grass availibility after they lamb...

Fertiliser application isnt something I have any experience with, as to what to put out when, so...

I was wondering whats the best fertiliser plan? What do people do as regards spreading fertiliser for having good grass early in the springtime, we'll say Feb timeframe.
Should it be spread in the autumn, to build up a bank of grass. Or is this a waste of money, and the fertiliser will just be leached over time?

Do people normally put out fertiliser at the end of the year, or is it done early in the Springtime (I would have thought early in Spring only, but maybe am wrong)

Any recommendations as to what fertiliser to use when would be appreciated.

Any help / advice / comments appreciated. Putting out fertiliser is something which we never did much of at home, so any comments or advice on it would be great.

Thanks.

reilig

I think it depends on where you live. In leitrim we will have a very poor grass growth from mid october to mid april. Other counties can have grass growth up till december, and grass will start growing again in early february.

I think that spreading fertilizer for anyone in Autumn is just a waste of money as it will be washed away. Its normally spread in spring time - about 3 to 4 weeks before you intend letting animals graze it.

Username John wrote: »

Hello,

I am trying to plan at the minute when I'll have sheep lambing next spring. The big thing is grass availibility after they lamb...

Fertiliser application isnt something I have any experience with, as to what to put out when, so...

I was wondering whats the best fertiliser plan? What do people do as regards spreading fertiliser for having good grass early in the springtime, we'll say Feb timeframe.
Should it be spread in the autumn, to build up a bank of grass. Or is this a waste of money, and the fertiliser will just be leached over time?

Do people normally put out fertiliser at the end of the year, or is it done early in the Springtime (I would have thought early in Spring only, but maybe am wrong)

Any recommendations as to what fertiliser to use when would be appreciated.

Any help / advice / comments appreciated. Putting out fertiliser is something which we never did much of at home, so any comments or advice on it would be great.

Thanks.

Username John

Thanks for response Reilig.

reilig wrote: »

I think it depends on where you live.

Cork - and we would usually have a bit of spring growth, except this year, when we had nothing til May nearly.

reilig wrote: »

I think that spreading fertilizer for anyone in Autumn is just a waste of money as it will be washed away.

Yeah, that makes sense.

reilig wrote: »

Its normally spread in spring time - about 3 to 4 weeks before you intend letting animals graze it.

Should the first application of fertiliser in Spring coincide with the start of grass growth, so it'll be used straight away? (I ask this as I sometimes see fertiliser being applied before I would have said grass is growing, so maybe my assumption here is wrong)

So what I am reading from this is close fields as early as I can this autumn / winter, and leave as much grass grow as posisble. Then spread after first grazing (which we'll say would be from end Feb onwards)?

agcons

Assuming you are not in REPS or a Nitrates Derogation the first thing you need to do is a set of soil samples, to,get an idea what the soil fertility levels are. Then you can do your fertiliser plan. They usually cost E25 each, although your local merchant might do a few for free on the promise of getting your business.
The Nitrates directive forbids spreading chemical fert between 15th sept and various dates in Jan depending on your location-12th for the south of the country.
Putting nitrogen out more than a couple of weeks before the start of grass growth is a waste of money.
Closing off in time is important but do it too early and an old butt of grass will develope which will have very little feed value in the spring

Muckit

what height agcons would you say to leave grass at after last grazing in the autumn to avoid this dead butt in the spring??

agcons

Muckit wrote: »

what height agcons would you say to leave grass at after last grazing in the autumn to avoid this dead butt in the spring??

I usually graze it right down to a couple of inches and as late as possible. Difficult the past two years because of the rain, no point in mucking up the place either so its a bit of a balancing act