What is calendar farming costing us?

blue5000

I wonder how much our costs have increased because of env regulations? Soil temperatures now are much higher than the minimum required for grass growth, yet as of 15 sept we are not allowed spread nitrogen. If we could spread it and keep grass growing for an extra month and 2 million cows were able to graze instead of being in eating silage how much would that save?

I'm sure there are other examples where calendar farming is costing money.

J.O. Farmer

Don't forget when your cows are in eating silage they're also producing slurry which can't be spread until the calendar says so not what might be optimal for utilisation. This also costs in terms of minimum storage capacity.

flutered

you seem to forget the main thing, some people got fancy money to dream that up, so until some people come up with a new bonus idea we are stuck.

einn32

The problem in Ireland is that the NVZs were introduced in a kind of blanket manner. Counties were grouped together. It doesn't seem to reflect the difference in soil types etc. I think it could have been brought in a more precise manner.

mf240

What do you think will happen if you spread next week. Do you think the rapid response unit will confiscate your wag tail.

Horse it out and say nothing to nobody.

Sam Kade

Better still but a bit late now you should have blanket spread the whole farm during August while there was still a good response. With the price of fertilizer now spreading after mid September is questionable.

5live

blue5000 wrote: »

I wonder how much our costs have increased because of env regulations? Soil temperatures now are much higher than the minimum required for grass growth, yet as of 15 sept we are not allowed spread nitrogen. If we could spread it and keep grass growing for an extra month and 2 million cows were able to graze instead of being in eating silage how much would that save?

I'm sure there are other examples where calendar farming is costing money.

My favourite one is the 'huge' risk of pollution from cattle slurry outside the permitted dates but sludge from human waste poses no risk of pollution.

Looks like our overlords s*it dont smell...

blue5000

Teagasc used to say getting a cow out earlier saves a euro per day, so 2m x 30 days is approx €60,000,000 out of our pockets by my rough calculations.

Bullocks

mf240 wrote: »

What do you think will happen if you spread next week. Do you think the rapid response unit will confiscate your wag tail.

Horse it out and say nothing to nobody.

Its a gamble around here because once the place starts getting wet , thats it till next may for grazing . But this is one year I would like to take the chance . If it stays dry for another while it will really help shorten the winter

just do it

Day light and the plants own annual cycle of growth also come into the equation. Even with high soil temperatures I don't think you'll get the same response as a month ago. The 15th was only a few days ago. You could have blanket spread on any day last week. We all know about these dates so it's just something you've to manage. We get a sfp to compensate for it. I don't think any loss in possible potential economic gain from spreading this week or next week would outweigh the national sfp.

nhg

Slurry spreading dates are the biggest problem for us here anyway, grand dry weather last winter and here we were moving slurry from one tank to the other tank which wasn't quiet as full - couldn't spread according to the calendar - wet weather arrives & people had no option only to head out spreading damaging fields - but according to the calendar it was ok!

Hopefully Big Phil might realise that as Simple Simon seems to have no cop on!

frazzledhome

What I find hilarious is the fact that in a wet year the Farm orgs look for leeway yet in a great growthy period such as last Dec nothing mentioned.

Sam Kade

nhg wrote: »

Slurry spreading dates are the biggest problem for us here anyway, grand dry weather last winter and here we were moving slurry from one tank to the other tank which wasn't quiet as full - couldn't spread according to the calendar - wet weather arrives & people had no option only to head out spreading damaging fields - but according to the calendar it was ok!

Hopefully Big Phil might realise that as Simple Simon seems to have no cop on!

They should have stuck with the old common sense rule "if the land is dry enough to travel it's fit for spreading" as long as you don't spread before heavy rain. The amount of slurry that goes out in one go after the closing date ends surely causes more pollution than spreading during winter without restrictions.

farmerjj

Sam Kade wrote: »

Better still but a bit late now you should have blanket spread the whole farm during August while there was still a good response. With the price of fertilizer now spreading after mid September is questionable.

Think the point is were not allowed to spread it so if get caught we will face a penalty, which is madness..Sure the EU will prob pay some fella some serious money to change it back:rolleyes:

freedominacup

frazzledhome wrote: »

What I find hilarious is the fact that in a wet year the Farm orgs look for leeway yet in a great growthy period such as last Dec nothing mentioned.

I had a go both with farm organisations and politically, basically sounding them out. Answer in both places was the two previous extensions had caused enough trouble if we asked again the answer would be "ye must need more storage". I don't remember who was posting from the UK last winter but they were horsing stuff out in perfect condition last December. Different interpretation of the same directive. Much greater account taken of actual conditions. That said if we went for that interpretation of the directive there would have been areas of the country that could not have spread organic fert at any point in 2013. At the same time it was some pain in the ring last Dec not to be able to go out esp considering the weather that came after the closed season ended.

keep going

Risking the head being taken off me but are we proving the point that you need these dates by our posts.the best time to spread is early in the grass growing year so why dont we should make it our business to get it spread, surely in 8 or 9 months there should be ample opportunity to spread and is it the case we dont have enough storage if we are spreading in december.I wonder these lads that want to go spreading then do their tanks be empty before October

farmerjj

keep going wrote: »

Risking the head being taken off me but are we proving the point that you need these dates by our posts.the best time to spread is early in the grass growing year so why dont we should make it our business to get it spread, surely in 8 or 9 months there should be ample opportunity to spread and is it the case we dont have enough storage if we are spreading in december.I wonder these lads that want to go spreading then do their tanks be empty before October

Hows everyone in the dept today:p

5live

keep going wrote: »

Risking the head being taken off me but are we proving the point that you need these dates by our posts.the best time to spread is early in the grass growing year so why dont we should make it our business to get it spread, surely in 8 or 9 months there should be ample opportunity to spread and is it the case we dont have enough storage if we are spreading in december.I wonder these lads that want to go spreading then do their tanks be empty before October

There are difficulties with workload. Most of my slurry is spread by contractor as is a lot of the neighbours slurry. There are only a few contractors there to do the job and they are flat out from Jan 10th agitating and them spreading. They go and spend maybe a half day on each farm to relieve the pressure before they can go back to do a proper job.

Also, you have the problems of contaminated grass being fed to cattle and huge quantities being spread on paddocks after grazing to avoid that problem.

One size doesn't fit all.
Europe has a continental climate with very little rainfall and weather that doesn't change much from day to day.
Ireland has a maritime climate with high rainfalls that make travel on land difficult and weather patterns that change from hour to hour, never mind from day to day.

That's just basic Junior Cert Geography! Yet our negotiators and those in charge of this farce cannot seem to grasp what is a basic requirement for a 15 year old.:mad:

mahoney_j

keep going wrote: »

Risking the head being taken off me but are we proving the point that you need these dates by our posts.the best time to spread is early in the grass growing year so why dont we should make it our business to get it spread, surely in 8 or 9 months there should be ample opportunity to spread and is it the case we dont have enough storage if we are spreading in december.I wonder these lads that want to go spreading then do their tanks be empty before October

You can only put bout so much slurry in one go.once slurry is out stock won't skin fields down fields well if there in it within 5 or 6 weeks after spreading.i always find a great response to slurry this time of year as well.i have about 70 k gallons left in tower and will be following cows from Monday .calender farming is crazy though weather and ground conditions should have a bigger bearing

ganmo

theres also the burning calender, luckily this year we can burn hills due to the dry weather but normally giving 4 days notice to the firebrigade is an impossibility!
We are found the real cost of this when the Dept started cutting the sfp.