Spreading Slurry in frosty weather

jimmy G M

Thinking of getting slurry out in the next day or so. East Galway area, no snow, frosts at night probably -4c? temps rise again during the day to say 4c so any frost melts away. land is drying up well. Have capacity to hold slurry for another 2 weeks aprox , so not under any pressure to spread now as such, however weather may be a hell of a lot wetter in a couple of weeks.

Any particular reason why you shouldn't spread slurry in frosty weather? I'm thinking mostly about how frost might affect the nutrient value of slurry.

I'm sure there's lots more spreading at the moment.

bob charles

its a no no under the nitrates directive, their thinking is that you spread slurry ontop of frozen ground, you get a big heavy shower of rain :rolleyes: and all the slurry flows of the top of the ground

jimmy G M

bob charles wrote: »

its a no no under the nitrates directive, their thinking is that you spread slurry ontop of frozen ground, you get a big heavy shower of rain :rolleyes: and all the slurry flows of the top of the ground

Yeah I know what your saying however ground is not that frozen around here. Frost does not penetrate that deep & ground thaws out completely during the day. There is no permafrost layer a couple of inches down. There's a reasonable covering of grass on the ground also.

td5man

jimmy G M wrote: »

Thinking of getting slurry out in the next day or so. East Galway area, no snow, frosts at night probably -4c? temps rise again during the day to say 4c so any frost melts away. land is drying up well. Have capacity to hold slurry for another 2 weeks aprox , so not under any pressure to spread now as such, however weather may be a hell of a lot wetter in a couple of weeks.

Any particular reason why you shouldn't spread slurry in frosty weather? I'm thinking mostly about how frost might affect the nutrient value of slurry.

I'm sure there's lots more spreading at the moment.

Youre not supposed to spread on frozen ground, wet ground, if it has rained, if it is raining, if it going to rain or if it is windy. So when can you spread?

simx

well im going for it tomorrow,contractor coming to agitate early and ill be getting as much out as possible before 11 or so as like in your case its fairly well thawn out by then

whelan1

well the way i am looking at it, is i didnt spread in the closed period when every tom dick and harry was - i am assuming without the written premission- so a few loads tomorrow to ease the pressure before guy comes with the umbilical spreader will do no harm

delaval

To answer your question frost will not affect nutriant value. Only issiue is if yu have a heavy cover and are going to graze soon.What can also happen in frost is when you drive on frosted grass you will get slight burn on wheel marks, a small price, better than perhaps a 4 inch deep frack in two weeks when you HAVE to spread.

We have 2 tankers arriving at 8am tomorrow regardless of frost!!!!!!!!!!!

jimmy G M

delaval wrote: »

To answer your question frost will not affect nutriant value. Only issiue is if yu have a heavy cover and are going to graze soon.What can also happen in frost is when you drive on frosted grass you will get slight burn on wheel marks, /QUOTE]

Thx for the response on the nutrient value. Yeah I am aware of the frost burn scenario as it may have happened in a field close by a couple of years ago.;)

Weather is really not that bad here at the moment and according to some forecasts I am reading the hardest of the frost may be over with some milder weather & rain at the weekend, so I reckon I'm going to empty at least one tank asap.

mahoney_j

Gave the day at it today and should be done by dinner time tomorrow,Pressure is off then and concentrate on calving cows and rearing calves.All i want now is a few dry mild days so i can get a half bag of urea out

Tipp Man

jimmy G M wrote: »

delaval wrote: »

To answer your question frost will not affect nutriant value. Only issiue is if yu have a heavy cover and are going to graze soon.What can also happen in frost is when you drive on frosted grass you will get slight burn on wheel marks, /QUOTE]

Thx for the response on the nutrient value. Yeah I am aware of the frost burn scenario as it may have happened in a filed close by a couple of years ago.;)

Weather is really not that bad here at the moment and according to some forecasts I am reading the hardest of the frost may be over with some milder weather & rain at the weekend, so I reckon I'm going to empty at least one tank asap.

Nearly destroyed a paddock last year - put the slurry out fairly heavy (but it was watery) and 2 days later a heavy frost came. The paddock was like it had been burned off with roundup and took a couple of months to recover - by recover i mean it is first on the list to be reseeded this year

Good loser

mahoney_j wrote: »

Gave the day at it today and should be done by dinner time tomorrow,Pressure is off then and concentrate on calving cows and rearing calves.All i want now is a few dry mild days so i can get a half bag of urea out

Will you put the urea on the fields that got slurry? And how soon after spreading?

whelan1

typical, got up early to get a headstart and no frost:mad:

simx

whelan1 wrote: »

typical, got up early to get a headstart and no frost:mad:

I got a brainstorm last night when contractor was finished agitating and went on and spread for the night, glad I did now as at home come 11am or so its back to square 1 after thawing

mahoney_j

Good loser wrote: »

Will you put the urea on the fields that got slurry? And how soon after spreading?

Put out 2500 gls to the acre on land that wont be grazed till about end of first week of march,Will put half bag of urea on this in about 3 weeks.Put out half bag of urea on rest of grazing area today and will follow up with 2500 gls per acre after grazing which will start by the end of next week

GERMAN ROCKS

mahoney_j wrote: »

Put out 2500 gls to the acre on land that wont be grazed till about end of first week of march,Will put half bag of urea on this in about 3 weeks.Put out half bag of urea on rest of grazing area today and will follow up with 2500 gls per acre after grazing which will start by the end of next week

its very early to be going out wit the spinner i would have thought? i have 15 tonne of urea just after arriving into the yard today which i ordered in december but dont plan on spreading any until at least mid february

delaval

GERMAN ROCKS wrote: »

its very early to be going out wit the spinner i would have thought? i have 15 tonne of urea just after arriving into the yard today which i ordered in december but dont plan on spreading any until at least mid february

Soil temp 2c today too cold for fert at €400+/tonne

Blue Holland

I'm down in very south east corner of country, hard to believe but soil temp was up at 9.5c on the 6 Jan, back to 6c last sunday, had feck all frost down here, given the forecast for the weekend goin hold off on fert, hope to get some out next week.

mahoney_j

Put out a half bag to the acre on 25 acres yesterday ground was dry and will get about 48 hours before rain,Dont feel it was a gambleWhy wait till u are mad busy calving and rearing calves??one less job to be done.Never have any hesitation going this early as long as weather is dryish ground conditions are good.This was spread on ground that has covers of beteween 1050 and 1450 ish

F.D

who thinks after the rain that fell yesterday was it a waste of time spreading the slurry and fertilizer on the few days previous

whelan1

F.D wrote: »

who thinks after the rain that fell yesterday was it a waste of time spreading the slurry and fertilizer on the few days previous

whatever about the slurry, spreading fertiliser imo was very stupid considering the forecast , total waste of money spreading with that rain coming

delaval

whelan1 wrote: »

whatever about the slurry, spreading fertiliser imo was very stupid considering the forecast , total waste of money spreading with that rain coming

Sorry but I have to diagree re. fert. With urea it gets absorbed so fast in damp ground that it is dead safe 1 day before a deluge like yesterdays. The only issiue with urea is soil temp. As soil temp is about 3c much too cold to have any useful effect on grass growth, take this from someone who has wasted many lorries of fert:eek:
On slurry we spent Wed & Thurs spreading I guess it's just about in New Ross by now:mad::mad::mad::mad:

bob charles

delaval wrote: »

Sorry but I have to diagree re. fert. With urea it gets absorbed so fast in damp ground that it is dead safe 1 day before a deluge like yesterdays. The only issiue with urea is soil temp. As soil temp is about 3c much too cold to have any useful effect on grass growth, take this from someone who has wasted many lorries of fert:eek:
On slurry we spent Wed & Thurs spreading I guess it's just about in New Ross by now:mad::mad::mad::mad:

yes but there is a major time lag on Urea fert hitting the ground and actually getting to work so I wouldnt be too worried about, using an AN based product wouldn't be so wise at this early stage. Again all depends on the land

jimmy G M

Some good info here on spring application of fertiliser / slurry & early turnout of cattle from p 22 onwards.

http://www.teagasc.ie/publications/2012/1068/1068_TodaysFarmJanFeb2012.pdf

mahoney_j

Well im not a bit worried by going with the urea i spread on wed morning,It was spread on paddocks with a good cover og grass on them so that will provide some bit of insulation.Even with the frost i have a thermometer and it read 5.5 degrees just below the surface.We got heavy ish rain here yesterday but not as heavy as other parts.I really got into grass measuring and good pasture management a few years back and im confident that what i put out will be taken up by the plant.I aim to put out about 2 bags of urea on all grazing area as well as 2500 gls of slurry by april 1 and then go with sulfa can in april.This has worked for me over the last few years and i certainly plan on continuing with it.