1st Cut Silage

Robson99

Well lads & lassies just wondering have many of closed up for silage yet. Usually have fertiliser out at this stage but havent chanced it yet with the harsh weather. Was thinking of going with 2500gal slurry /acre to-morrow and with 80units n / acre tomorrow week. Would hope to cut it 27 May. Am i being too optimistic

td5man

Robson99 wrote: »

Well lads & lassies just wondering have many of closed up for silage yet. Usually have fertiliser out at this stage but havent chanced it yet with the harsh weather. Was thinking of going with 2500gal slurry /acre to-morrow and with 80units n / acre tomorrow week. Would hope to cut it 27 May. Am i being too optimistic

Thinking of giving the milkers a run across it this week and fertiliser next week hoping to cut before the end of may.

3 the square

usually go with 2 bags of urea and 1 bag cut sward per acre find the cut great for leaf and got slurry in feb hasnt been grased cutting end of may if possable . is that enough fertilizer or what do ye think of it people ???

stanflt

Silage ground got 8000 gallons an acre in feb followed by a bag of urea

Put out a bag of can with selenium last week and next week will get final 2 bags of can with sulphar


Aiming for 10 may cutting

Most of the silage ground has a cover of 5-600 kg at the moment and growing well

freedominacup

stanflt wrote: »

Silage ground got 8000 gallons an acre in feb followed by a bag of urea

Put out a bag of can with selenium last week and next week will get final 2 bags of can with sulphar


Aiming for 10 may cutting

Most of the silage ground has a cover of 5-600 kg at the moment and growing well

I know your silage quality is usually excellent but to me you are over fertilising by 2 bags of can and a bag of urea/acre. 2 units per day from April 1st until cutting date is my rule of thumb to avoid problems with nitates at harvesting time. There won't have been much of the N you have already applied utilsied since Feb esp since the covers are so low.

loveta

stanflt wrote: »

Silage ground got 8000 gallons an acre in feb followed by a bag of urea

Put out a bag of can with selenium last week and next week will get final 2 bags of can with sulphar


Aiming for 10 may cutting

Most of the silage ground has a cover of 5-600 kg at the moment and growing well

8000k acre ??? did you mean a Hectare?? if not thats a LOT of slurry would you not be afraid of it coming back in in the grass or did ye inject it inn?

Manoffeeling

stanflt wrote: »

Silage ground got 8000 gallons an acre in feb followed by a bag of urea

Put out a bag of can with selenium last week and next week will get final 2 bags of can with sulphar


Aiming for 10 may cutting

Most of the silage ground has a cover of 5-600 kg at the moment and growing well

Are the dairy washings going into your tank? It sounds very high. What are the new grass seeds like? Keep up the good work

f140

stanflt wrote: »

Silage ground got 8000 gallons an acre in feb followed by a bag of urea

Put out a bag of can with selenium last week and next week will get final 2 bags of can with sulphar


Aiming for 10 may cutting

Most of the silage ground has a cover of 5-600 kg at the moment and growing well

thats a pile of fertilizer you are putting out. Would it not be far too green when cutting and hence go nearly black in the pit?

BTW I have about 4k gallons of slurry out now. put 2k at the end of feb and the 2k the week after st patricks weekend. No fert out yet but will be going out this week now hopefully with two bags of urea. hope to cut around the 20th of may

Bean_Flicker

Would putting out granulated lime now be any good?

I'm thinking of spreding a few bags on silage ground tomorrow and hope to hit the ground with fertiliser the week after when hopefully the temperatures will be up a bit. Silage ground also got slurry in Feb.

Hope to cut last week in May, first week of June at the latest

delaval

Bean_Flicker wrote: »

Would putting out granulated lime now be any good?

I'm thinking of spreding a few bags on silage ground tomorrow and hope to hit the ground with fertiliser the week after when hopefully the temperatures will be up a bit. Silage ground also got slurry in Feb.

Hope to cut last week in May, first week of June at the latest

what's your ph?

mahoney_j

stanflt wrote: »

Silage ground got 8000 gallons an acre in feb followed by a bag of urea

Put out a bag of can with selenium last week and next week will get final 2 bags of can with sulphar


Aiming for 10 may cutting

Most of the silage ground has a cover of 5-600 kg at the moment and growing well

Jaysus stan thats some heap of manure,8k of slurry to the acre is surely a misprint.If correct youve 80 units of n in the slurry 46 in the urea,27 in the can with selenium and a further 54 in the sulfa can.Thats a whopping 207 units of nitrogen.Surely itll be very hard to preserve that.I closed most of mine last week and since mid jan it has got 3k of slurry to the acre,1 BAG OF 10 10 20,Half bag of urea and 3.5 bags of pasture sward.Total 157.5 units of n since mid jan and 94.5 last week.Like u i want high dmd (>75)high dry matter(30% plus)and high protein(>14%) in my silage.Anyway aiming for a cut date sometime around 20 t0 24 may

Bean_Flicker

delaval wrote: »

what's your ph?

Not a clue to be honest :pac:

Land was not limed properly in a good while, gran lime is cheap so just think it would be no harm to give silage ground 150 kg or so of gran lime

mahoney_j

Gran lime is dear at180 a tonne compared to your mormal lime at 23 a tonne spread.With gran lime they reccomend 3 to 4 bags to the acre and it will have to be done every year.Normal lime 2 to 3 tonne to th acre and you will get 3 to five years out of it.Only advantage with gran lime is that it works like fertliser in that it will be utilised after a week to 10 days.Personaly i put out 40 tonnes of lime every year at 1.5 tonnes to the acre across my fields

loveta

Out of curiosity what do you guys spread on the first cut meds we normally give about 3k slurry feb then 100kg N or if the ground is hungry 100kg cut to the acre now some say its not near enough but i find it makes better silage not being so rank

stanflt

mahoney_j wrote: »

Jaysus stan thats some heap of manure,8k of slurry to the acre is surely a misprint.If correct youve 80 units of n in the slurry 46 in the urea,27 in the can with selenium and a further 54 in the sulfa can.Thats a whopping 207 units of nitrogen.Surely itll be very hard to preserve that.I closed most of mine last week and since mid jan it has got 3k of slurry to the acre,1 BAG OF 10 10 20,Half bag of urea and 3.5 bags of pasture sward.Total 157.5 units of n since mid jan and 94.5 last week.Like u i want high dmd (>75)high dry matter(30% plus)and high protein(>14%) in my silage.Anyway aiming for a cut date sometime around 20 t0 24 may

8000gallons is only 32units (0.04-0.04-0.28 is what it tested) never assume all slurry is the same

32units in slurry with 40% efficiency is only actually 12.8 utilized

f140

stanflt wrote: »

8000gallons is only 32units (0.04-0.04-0.28 is what it tested) never assume all slurry is the same

32units in slurry with 40% efficiency is only actually 12.8 utilized

how do you test it?

stanflt

f140 wrote: »

how do you test it?

i sent off an agitated sample with my teagasc advisor

Manoffeeling

stanflt wrote: »

i sent off an agitated sample with my teagasc advisor

That doesn't look right. Washings?

stanflt

Manoffeeling wrote: »

That doesn't look right. Washings?

over ground tower- all slurry and parlour washings mixed

stanflt

Manoffeeling wrote: »

That doesn't look right. Washings?

do you know the proper average analysis of slurry or just the figures that men selling injectors use

strong spring slurry 0.07-0.06-0.43
diluted spring 0.05-0.03-0.25

summer strong 0.04-0.06-0.43
diluted summer 0.03-0.03-0.25

Manoffeeling

How many gallons of washings are going into the tank on a daily basis?

stanflt

Manoffeeling wrote: »

How many gallons of washings are going into the tank on a daily basis?

prop around 1000gals or so

Manoffeeling

stanflt wrote: »

prop around 1000gals or so

Very,very watery slurry?

stanflt

Manoffeeling wrote: »

Very,very watery slurry?

yes its very watery- even in summer on an 18-20day i can follow cows with 3000gal/acre

over ground store was the best thing built on the farm

just do it

stanflt wrote: »

8000gallons is only 32units (0.04-0.04-0.28 is what it tested) never assume all slurry is the same

32units in slurry with 40% efficiency is only actually 12.8 utilized

stanflt wrote: »

do you know the proper average analysis of slurry or just the figures that men selling injectors use

strong spring slurry 0.07-0.06-0.43
diluted spring 0.05-0.03-0.25

summer strong 0.04-0.06-0.43
diluted summer 0.03-0.03-0.25

Those figures must be per 100gal? (0.04*800=32)

freedominacup

just do it wrote: »

Those figures must be per 100gal? (0.04*800=32)

.04whats per what?

We aren't stopping any 1st cut this year. Long story I won't go into it. If we were we would have the fert out this week. It would have gotten 2k/acre pig slurry after grazing in the past month and weather permitting we'd spread 1 bag/acre urea this week. Around 20th Apr we'd go back in with 1-1and1/2 bags/acre of CAN depending on how growth was over the previous three weeks and what the long term forecast was for the coming week to 10 days. We would aim to have all nitrates used by 10th May and be ready to cut at first oppurtunity after that. We got a scalding with Nitrates 20 years ago and had to watch 25 acres of fresh re-seeds go from near perfect to s***e to allow the nitrates to be taken up. I don't think drying it would have been an option even if the equipment to do it had been readily available at the time. These were fresh re-seeds, ungrazed, in a good grass year, late heading varieties in last week of May the crops were huge.

Manoffeeling

would it not be feasible to get one of those little sprinkler things that spread water on a little are and it moves along?

Farmer Pudsey

mahoney_j wrote: »

Gran lime is dear at180 a tonne compared to your mormal lime at 23 a tonne spread.With gran lime they reccomend 3 to 4 bags to the acre and it will have to be done every year.Normal lime 2 to 3 tonne to th acre and you will get 3 to five years out of it.Only advantage with gran lime is that it works like fertliser in that it will be utilised after a week to 10 days.Personaly i put out 40 tonnes of lime every year at 1.5 tonnes to the acre across my fields

I will admit I am a fan of gran lime. I have used it for about 4 years now. I think that it is much more efficient than presumed all mu PH are above 6.5 and nearly 7. You only need to spread 1 bag/acre to maintain PH. I have never heard of anyone spreading 3-4 bags/acre. Usually max recommended is 2/acre.
The issue I find with ordinary lime is that you have a small spreading window, you cannot spread on paddocks that there is grass on and you have to spread all at the one time.

Cost wise you can buy at around 140/ton this equates to 7/bag. Over 4 years it costs 28/acre that costs a little over one ton ground lime/acre.

Now maybe it is my land however I find it works for me. It is also ideal for reseeding as it brings PH to the right level immediatly

just do it

Farmer Pudsey wrote: »

I will admit I am a fan of gran lime. I have used it for about 4 years now. I think that it is much more efficient than presumed all mu PH are above 6.5 and nearly 7. You only need to spread 1 bag/acre to maintain PH. I have never heard of anyone spreading 3-4 bags/acre. Usually max recommended is 2/acre.
The issue I find with ordinary lime is that you have a small spreading window, you cannot spread on paddocks that there is grass on and you have to spread all at the one time.

Cost wise you can buy at around 140/ton this equates to 7/bag. Over 4 years it costs 28/acre that costs a little over one ton ground lime/acre.

Now maybe it is my land however I find it works for me. It is also ideal for reseeding as it brings PH to the right level immediatly

How was your pH to start off with? Maybe it's good to maintain it but not good to rise it if it's low to begin with.

Farmer Pudsey

just do it wrote: »

How was your pH to start off with? Maybe it's good to maintain it but not good to rise it if it's low to begin with.

TBH I do not know as I did not test until this year.

Muckit

stanflt wrote: »

over ground store was the best thing built on the farm

Excuse my ignorance. Not many overground tanks around here despite one of the biggest suppliers of them being only a stones throw from us.

How do you agitate an overground tank??

delaval

stanflt wrote: »

yes its very watery- even in summer on an 18-20day i can follow cows with 3000gal/acre

over ground store was the best thing built on the farm

Totally agree regarding slurry. We constructed a lined lagoon 6 years ago one of the best investments to date as all slurry washings etc con be put into it.

49801

Muckit wrote: »

Excuse my ignorance. Not many overground tanks around here despite one of the biggest suppliers of them being only a stones throw from us.

How do you agitate an overground tank??

Think most over ground tanks get pumped into on a daily basis and this helps prevent a crust forming. Also I believe they have a propeller blade fixed to the wall that is pto powered.

That said I have seen photos of fairly interesting looking agitators that can reach into them too

iverjohnston

Some have a propellor going in through the side, some can have a propellor type mixer hinging down from the top, and some have a mixer pump in the collection tank at the base, and you let slurry out of the overgroung tank into this small tank, and the pump puts the slurry up a pipe and onto the top of the crust. Vital that the outlet valve on the big tank is fail safe!

td5man

delaval wrote: »

Totally agree regarding slurry. We constructed a lined lagoon 6 years ago one of the best investments to date as all slurry washings etc con be put into it.

Thinking of building a lagoon this year but some people have said they collect too much rain.
Who lined yours?

Timmaay

td5man wrote: »

Thinking of building a lagoon this year but some people have said they collect too much rain.
Who lined yours?

I think alot depends on your average rainfall, Donegal will be much different to the south east, and then your cow numbers, the more storage you need the more viable a low cost outdoor tank becomes. I'm not sure what to do either, have 80kgls slatted already, but badly need more storage space in the 2nd yard. I'm uncertain of the future in terms of expansion so no point going wild in terms of storage space now. Moving forward for now I'll probably put in another underground tank of about 50kgls, and roof it afterwards, it will save me space in the yard, and shouldn't cost much more after messing around with holding tanks/pumps etc with a lagoon or steel tank.

delaval

td5man wrote: »

Thinking of building a lagoon this year but some people have said they collect too much rain.
Who lined yours?

We can't mention brands here, I will pm you contact details tonight.

delaval

td5man wrote: »

Thinking of building a lagoon this year but some people have said they collect too much rain.
Who lined yours?

How can they hold collect more water than an over ground tank without a roof?
They are without doubt the best value around for storage if that's all you require. The larger you go the more cost effective they become.

Farmer Pudsey

delaval wrote: »

How can they hold collect more water than an over ground tank without a roof?
They are without doubt the best value around for storage if that's all you require. The larger you go the more cost effective they become.

An over ground tank is the same size at bottom as at the top. A lagoon sides are sloped so bottom area could be as little as 1/3 of top area depending on size and design. Because of this they take in more water.

Mulumpy

Ive an over ground store and need every drop of rain water to mix it properly. Use a jetter system to mix

F.D

Just a quick question for stanfit ref 8k of slurry per acre, Do you not mess up the soil structure and worms etc by spreading that much in one application?

whelan1

Mulumpy wrote: »

Ive an over ground store and need every drop of rain water to mix it properly. Use a jetter system to mix

NO problem like that here this year, most of the slurry tower is rainwater:mad::mad:

td5man

Watery slurry would be ideal to spread all summer on grazing .
But theres no point in sprading water either.
Will have to price the two options of slats v lagoon .
Could build the tank myself so it would be materials only, same with the lagoon . I have a corner where i could fit a 115'x29' tank

delaval

Farmer Pudsey wrote: »

An over ground tank is the same size at bottom as at the top. A lagoon sides are sloped so bottom area could be as little as 1/3 of top area depending on size and design. Because of this they take in more water.

Point taken but difference is not as great as one would think. All water is actually needed. Lagoons have got a bad rep because of Greenfield but still good value for large ones

td5man

delaval wrote: »

Point taken but difference is not as great as one would think. All water is actually needed. Lagoons have got a bad rep because of Greenfield but still good value for large ones

Would like to build 300k gallon lagoon it should be enough for a 6 month winter
Has anyone lined their own lagoon?
Slatted tank would only hold 150k gallons

mf240

td5man wrote: »

Would like to build 300k gallon lagoon it should be enough for a 6 month winter
Has anyone lined their own lagoon?
Slatted tank would only hold 150k gallons

If you go as wide as poss and as deep as possible will you gain much.

Don't forget you are gaining feed space and space in general with the tank.

td5man

mf240 wrote: »

If you go as wide as poss and as deep as possible will you gain much.

Don't forget you are gaining feed space and space in general with the tank.

Could do with more cubicle/feed space when we're milking 1000's of cows in 2015

just do it

How has a thread on 1st cut silage turned into a thread on slurry storage options

mf240

td5man wrote: »

Could do with more cubicle/feed space when we're milking 1000's of cows in 2015

Ya there no big talk of expansion this year:D

Was just thinking of my own situation, im ok for cubicles but cows cant all eat at the same time so I would put in a tank if was adding storage.

Timmaay

just do it wrote: »

How has a thread on 1st cut silage turned into a thread on slurry storage options

With the amount of moisture that was in my 1st cut last year, most of it ended up in the slurry tank

delaval

td5man wrote: »

Would like to build 300k gallon lagoon it should be enough for a 6 month winter
Has anyone lined their own lagoon?
Slatted tank would only hold 150k gallons

A lined lagoon must be certified, does this answer your question?