silage nutrient takeoff/requirements

JohnBoy

Hi,

For ground that's getting no slurry, what fertiliser should I be putting out? and how much of it for good first cut silage.

P&K are both at index 2, and 2t of lime has been spread per acre.

6480

3 bags of cutsward

JohnBoy

Cut sward is what I have been using, but I've been told by a few people that it's intended for use with slurry as it doesnt match the full P&K takeoff of silage.

Tipp Man

Check out the Gouldings website http://www.gouldings.ie/home/

go to the advice section and it is pretty good for what you are looking for

JohnBoy

They do actually.

http://www.gouldings.ie/advice/silage/1st-cut-no-slurry/

6.5 bags of stuff per acre though, yikes.


that's 136 an acre in fert, versus 91 for four bags of cut sward.

JohnBoy

in a year on year situation taking two cuts of silage and getting no slurry am I not just leaching the good out of my ground?

rancher

JohnBoy wrote: »

in a year on year situation taking two cuts of silage and getting no slurry am I not just leaching the good out of my ground?

Yes, I've been on here warning guys about selling silage and what you'd want to be getting for it a bale just to replace the nutrients that your sending out the gate,

blue5000

Depends on what your soil indices are. Index 1 or 2 will need a lot more than index 4. Just to maintain it I think it's somewhere around 10 units P and 50 units of K removed in a 10 ton crop / acre.

Don't forget that every 100kgs of liveweight going out the gate is removing some too.

severeoversteer

3 bags of can plus sulpher
1 bag of 0 --7-- 30,

could get 3.5 bags an acre on new ryegrass sward

half bag of 0--7--30 an acre afterwards would be no harm


teagasc man told me 30 kg/ acre of sulpher is needed per year, unless you want to get it tested for sulpher as an element in a soil test but that costs more.

but the above should cater for your p and k requirements

bob charles

all crops should be fertilised for offtake unless crazy soil indicies. Unless you are selling top class silage you can charge what its worth

JohnBoy

bob charles wrote: »

all crops should be fertilised for offtake unless crazy soil indicies.

what I'm trying to establish is what is my offtake?

Unless you are selling top class silage you can charge what its worth

This will be our third year selling it on the stem, the oldest of it is ten years old and most of it is very clean. One paddock with a lot of docks and nettles to be dealt with this year and i'd say we'll be selling pretty good stuff.

I'll take what I can get for it, but so far I've been getting what I want, but I dont want to be screwing myself over in the long run.