when to plough land

duffysfarm

I have 22 acres of decent quality land which I was thinking of ploughing (never been ploughed as long as me or my father can remember). I have a couple of questions - when do people think would be the best time to plough it? I have been told to either do it in June or the back end of the year. I would prefer to do it later in the year but my father is saying that if we do it during the summer then we would have a longer benefit of the ploughed land.
Secondly, I can get some pig slurry for free which is not far from home and have a tractor and tanker. would it be any benefit to the ground for it to get the slurry if I was going to plough it i.e. get the slurry before it was ploughed?
and finally it probably would be no harm to get the soil tested. how should I go about this? is it teagasc that I would send the samples to?

grazeaway

duffysfarm wrote: »

I have 22 acres of decent quality land which I was thinking of ploughing (never been ploughed as long as me or my father can remember). I have a couple of questions - when do people think would be the best time to plough it? I have been told to either do it in June or the back end of the year. I would prefer to do it later in the year but my father is saying that if we do it during the summer then we would have a longer benefit of the ploughed land.
Secondly, I can get some pig slurry for free which is not far from home and have a tractor and tanker. would it be any benefit to the ground for it to get the slurry if I was going to plough it i.e. get the slurry before it was ploughed?
and finally it probably would be no harm to get the soil tested. how should I go about this? is it teagasc that I would send the samples to?

al depends on what your going to put into it. if your were going to plant a tillage crop then i'd be getting ready to spray it this week to kill off teh old grass and beb ready to plough as soon as possible of setting. if your planning on reseeding then you could do it now and under sow with corn for arable silage. if your planning on doing it later in the year then maybe your going to cut a crop of silage off it 1st.

as for the slurry a few lads round here threw it out last year just be for teh plough and ploughed it straight into the ground. Read in teh farm exam that the germans for change regulation so that it ploughed in with 4 hours of spreading.

again all depneds on what you plan on dong with the field

49801

duffysfarm wrote: »

I have 22 acres of decent quality land which I was thinking of ploughing (never been ploughed as long as me or my father can remember). I have a couple of questions - when do people think would be the best time to plough it? I have been told to either do it in June or the back end of the year. I would prefer to do it later in the year but my father is saying that if we do it during the summer then we would have a longer benefit of the ploughed land.
Secondly, I can get some pig slurry for free which is not far from home and have a tractor and tanker. would it be any benefit to the ground for it to get the slurry if I was going to plough it i.e. get the slurry before it was ploughed?
and finally it probably would be no harm to get the soil tested. how should I go about this? is it teagasc that I would send the samples to?

sooner the better!
the sooner you do it the sooner you'll have the benefit of the reseed.
you wont have much change out of €400/acre buy the time you have the job complete. So make sure you've the cash to do it.

are you lightly stocked enough that you can take all the ground out for 8-12weeks it'll take before it's back in rotation?

we're reseeding ground coming back out of tillage and its nearly all ploughed now. i am only bursting to start working it but have to wait till the soil is fit to work

Contracters will be trying to put you off till later after maize is set as they have a lot of work to get through and you are coming to the game late so you're bottom of the pile for the moment.

get is sprayed off and wait 5-10days before ploughing it.
you'll have to wait another 10days ish if the weather is good before you can start working it.

Ring you teagasc man about soil testing... they probably have a testing tool in the office that they loan out to people and you can do it yourself or you can get someone to do it for you. However if its been fertilised already this year the result might be off so bring that up with them while your talking to them.

good luck with it

hugo29

49801 wrote: »

sooner the better!
the sooner you do it the sooner you'll have the benefit of the reseed.
you wont have much change out of €400/acre buy the time you have the job complete. So make sure you've the cash to do it.

are you lightly stocked enough that you can take all the ground out for 8-12weeks it'll take before it's back in rotation?

we're reseeding ground coming back out of tillage and its nearly all ploughed now. i am only bursting to start working it but have to wait till the soil is fit to work

Contracters will be trying to put you off till later after maize is set as they have a lot of work to get through and you are coming to the game late so you're bottom of the pile for the moment.

get is sprayed off and wait 5-10days before ploughing it.
you'll have to wait another 10days ish if the weather is good before you can start working it.

Ring you teagasc man about soil testing... they probably have a testing tool in the office that they loan out to people and you can do it yourself or you can get someone to do it for you. However if its been fertilised already this year the result might be off so bring that up with them while your talking to them.

good luck with it

spray it off now, plough as soon as you can, lime it and wait for the growth to improve, then harrow and seed as soon as weather allows

worth checking what drainage is like underneath, any rushes, if so might be worth a run of the mole plough.

duffysfarm

the plan is to have the land in grass for beef cattle. have the department coming out on Monday to inspect for a herd number so dont have any cattle yet. a few people have recommended to spray the land in posts. Whats the benefit in this? the land has got no fert so far this year - has been rented out for a good number of years and I bought it last back end.

49801

duffysfarm wrote: »

a few people have recommended to spray the land in posts. Whats the benefit in this?

You want to kill the old grasses as they are not as productive and are only robbing nutrients from the new grass that is more productive.

grazeaway

duffysfarm wrote: »

the plan is to have the land in grass for beef cattle. have the department coming out on Monday to inspect for a herd number so dont have any cattle yet. a few people have recommended to spray the land in posts. Whats the benefit in this? the land has got no fert so far this year - has been rented out for a good number of years and I bought it last back end.

if you can leave it out of grazing for a few months then i'd reseed it ASAP. you can then graze part of it later in the summer and allow the rest go stronger for silage. You wont get much grazing from new grass this summer as it'll take time to bed in but after a few rotaions it'll be in good nic next spring. not point delaying it until you have a plan for it for the next few months.

jp6470

Less thinking more ploughing..lol get it fired over,tested,limed etc.
I'd forget about pig slurry unless you know it's really good.friend wasted two days carting grey water to his grass and it done nothing.

freedominacup

jp6470 wrote: »

Less thinking more ploughing..lol get it fired over,tested,limed etc.
I'd forget about pig slurry unless you know it's really good.friend wasted two days carting grey water to his grass and it done nothing.

I'd say your friend has a lot more problems than 2 wasted days. We've no bag fert spread yet but all paddocks have been covered with 2k/acre of pig slurry. Grass is coming nicely since the sun came out.

delaval

freedominacup wrote: »

I'd say your friend has a lot more problems than 2 wasted days. We've no bag fert spread yet but all paddocks have been covered with 2k/acre of pig slurry. Grass is coming nicely since the sun came out.

Are you in derrogation? If so can you import pig slurry?

freedominacup

delaval wrote: »

Are you in derrogation? If so can you import pig slurry?

Relative to our total area we have a good bit of tillage so in general pig goes to grass and cattle goes to grain. We buy very little compound for grain and basically none for grass. All our ground is 3 or 4 for P & K with exception of land we bought in the past few years which has been in tillage since which is at 2 for P.

delaval

freedominacup wrote: »

Relative to our total area we have a good bit of tillage so in general pig goes to grass and cattle goes to grain. We buy very little compound for grain and basically none for grass. All our ground is 3 or 4 for P & K with exception of land we bought in the past few years which has been in tillage since which is at 2 for P.

So, when you're giving me lip I shall disregard your comments as you are a tillage farmer, There must be a forum for you elsewhere.....I for one would have an easier life:P:P:P:P

freedominacup

delaval wrote: »

So, when you're giving me lip I shall disregard your comments as you are a tillage farmer, There must be a forum for you elsewhere.....I for one would have an easier life:P:P:P:P

Listen boy you're only here a wet day and I've had nothing but grief from you since you turned up. I'll give you "disregard your comments", just you wait, you're on my s** list now son...........;)