Silage 2015

Sami23

So has anyone closed up ground and spread fertiliser for this years silage yet.
I'm hoping to do it myself this coming Saturday weather permitting (heavy rain forecast) and if not Saturday week. :pac:
Ground got 3500 gallons of slurry end of February so gonna go with 3 bags 18-6-12 now. Would normally have gone with Cut Sward but going with 18-6-12 this year to help P & K indexes.

freedominacup

Sami23 wrote: »

So has anyone closed up ground and spread fertiliser for this years silage yet.
I'm hoping to do it myself this coming Saturday weather permitting (heavy rain forecast) and if not Saturday week. :pac:
Ground got 3500 gallons of slurry end of February so gonna go with 3 bags 18-6-12 now. Would normally have gone with Cut Sward but going with 18-6-12 this year to help P & K indexes.

Same as last year I'll probably close the last of it as I'm driving around with the mower. Only around 30% of what we will cut will be closed. This is on an outfarm. Everything else will be closed as surpluses appear during second and third rotations. Indexes good here in general so will replace what's taken off after cutting. Closed ground will probably get 2k gallons now though. Getting bag of urea today and will get bag and a half of ASN early April.

Greengrass1

4.4 bags if 18 6 12 flooring on silage ground today.
I'll be a long time at it with my 1t spreader.
planning on giving silage ground 2 bags of mop in autumn and 1 bag on whole farm

C0N0R

Silage ground got food coating of slurry in Feb and got a second bag of urea during the week. 45 out of 100 acres closed up, might squeeze in some more growth dependant.

I said

Did ya see the boys in Waterford have it baled already

whelan2

Greengrass1 wrote: »

4.4 bags if 18 6 12 flooring on silage ground today.
I'll be a long time at it with my 1t spreader.
planning on giving silage ground 2 bags of mop in autumn and 1 bag on whole farm

Do you spread any p and k on silage ground?

Dawggone

AH Lads I've first cut in the pit!
What do yeez be at??

Second cut in 10days/fortnight.

Greengrass1

whelan2 wrote: »

Do you spread any p and k on silage ground?

Yes it already got 2 bags of 15 10 10 and a heap of dung in fall.
plan was to put 0 7 30 on it but we've left it too late and fear we'll bring all the k back in in the silage

darragh_haven

Dawggone wrote: »

AH Lads I've first cut in the pit!
What do yeez be at??

Second cut in 10days/fortnight.

you like rising fellas. Just an observation (nothing wrong with that ) second cut of the lawn due in 5 or 6 days tho.

First cut silage for the 15th May. Will go with 45 units of nitrogen today or Monday as a top up

whelan2

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Yes it already got 2 bags of 15 10 10 and a heap of dung in fall.
plan was to put 0 7 30 on it but we've left it too late and fear we'll bring all the k back in in the silage

sorry i meant to ask CONOR that , as he was topping up urea

Bullocks

Dawggone wrote: »

AH Lads I've first cut in the pit!
What do yeez be at??

Second cut in 10days/fortnight.

I went down to one of our silage gardens last night to have a look at it after I asked the brother to give it a light run of slurry and he had it absolutely blackened the flute and the father is deepening a drain "seems as the digger was there " he told me . He must be ten yrs telling me it would be a waste of time draining the bottom bit because it's lower than the corrib but a notion took hold so he gave it a lash .
I probably won't catch up with your silage this year !

C0N0R

whelan2 wrote: »

sorry i meant to ask CONOR that , as he was topping up urea

Gets slurry in February and then after first cut, soil tests show 95% of the farm is index three or four, used to use can but trying urea this year for the first time.

Dawggone

Knocked a field of this today. Should have waited a fortnight but I want to get cracking on maize.

C0N0R

Dawggone wrote: »

Knocked a field of this today. Should have waited a fortnight but I want to get cracking on maize.

Lucerne?

Dawggone

C0N0R wrote: »

Lucerne?

Crimson clover.

mahoney_j

Dawggone wrote: »

Knocked a field of this today. Should have waited a fortnight but I want to get cracking on maize.

Crimson??

blackdog1

All silage ground closed here from the middle of February, got fertilised and slurry then too.

Dawggone

mahoney_j wrote: »

Crimson??

Yea Crimson Mahoney. Very disappointing this year. Cold and wet March fecked it.
However will get a crop of maize with only 20ton/ha muck.

Greengrass1

Dawggone wrote: »

Yea Crimson Mahoney. Very disappointing this year. Cold and wet March fecked it.
However will get a crop of maize with only 20ton/ha muck.

Surely that's cheaper than growing grass Dawggone?
Sure the muck cost basicly nothing

Dawggone

Greengrass1 wrote: »

Surely that's cheaper than growing grass Dawggone?
Sure the muck cost basicly nothing

Thanks Greengrass. You have cracked the Enigma code!!

You are the first on here to actually get it.
Respect.

Sami23

blackdog1 wrote: »

All silage ground closed here from the middle of February, got fertilised and slurry then too.

When ya hoping to cut Dog ?

blackdog1

Sami23 wrote: »

When ya hoping to cut Dog ?

Around the 15th to 22nd May.

The Cuban

Meadows still been grazed but the growth is now outpacing the rate at which they are grazing so I spread watery slurry on Friday/Saturday. The heavy rain has washed it down already!!
Will give it a Bag/acre of CAN in 10 days time then wait till the 1st of June to cut (weather permitting)

Count Mondego

Dawggone wrote: »

Thanks Greengrass. You have cracked the Enigma code!!

You are the first on here to actually get it.
Respect.

The arrogance of this post is breathtaking. Be sure to send him over a gold star.

Dawggone

Count Mondego wrote: »

The arrogance of this post is breathtaking. Be sure to send him over a gold star.

Apologies if the post came across as arrogant. I ment it in appreciation, truly.

djmc

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=h92j_xKy_Uc

The silage outfits getting faster every year

frazzledhome

5000 gls of slurry out 3*10-10-20 out 1*urea out and a bag of ASN going today. All been grazed twice. That's in the whole farm. Will take paddocks in early May some first cut bales for milkers mid may and main crop last week of May. As Freedom says this will be added to by cow paddocks when we start mowing

Carrigogunnell

Dawggone wrote: »

Yea Crimson Mahoney. Very disappointing this year. Cold and wet March fecked it.
However will get a crop of maize with only 20ton/ha muck.

What exactly is Crimson lads.

mahoney_j

Carrigogunnell wrote: »

What exactly is Crimson lads.

Clover ,very high in p .put it in with crop of Italian last year .rocket fuel for milking cows

Greengrass1

mahoney_j wrote: »

Clover ,very high in p .put it in with crop of Italian last year .rocket fuel for milking cows

Will be stiching hybrid into out Italian after 3rd cut thus yr.
In 3 yrs this month production will drop off next yr

Cow Porter

mahoney_j wrote: »

Clover ,very high in p .put it in with crop of Italian last year .rocket fuel for milking cows

Can ye give a few more details or even links, can't find anything on it,
Soil type, cutting dates, annual or perennial, and most importantly cost per ha/ton

Timmaay

Dawggone wrote: »

Apologies if the post came across as arrogant. I ment it in appreciation, truly.

Think maize has been well discussed already here, ask lads about how it worked out for them in 2012 ha! Last year the economics certainly favored growing maize over grass silage but that was an exceptional one in 10 year summer. On 90% of Irish dairy farms it should be all about growing grass, grass and more grass and have the cows graze that for as long as is possible. I used a tidy amount of maize all winter and the cows are still buffer fed on it, but the economics of it don't excite me at all.

blackdog1

Timmaay wrote: »

Think maize has been well discussed already here, ask lads about how it worked out for them in 2012 ha! Last year the economics certainly favored growing maize over grass silage but that was an exceptional one in 10 year summer. On 90% of Irish dairy farms it should be all about growing grass, grass and more grass and have the cows graze that for as long as is possible. I used a tidy amount of maize all winter and the cows are still buffer fed on it, but the economics of it don't excite me at all.

Economics of maize make sense if you have a limited land base and want to go up in numbers. I could potentially carry 20 more cows on the same acreage and rotation if I buffer fed maize during spring and other periods when I'm tight for grass. Only problem is you need to be set up for it. It would require a very long and narrow pit and I recon I'd have to feed 1 ton a day.

That's the theory anyway. I'm sure someone on here will prove me wrong though...:(

Timmaay

blackdog1 wrote: »

Economics of maize make sense if you have a limited land base and want to go up in numbers. I could potentially carry 20 more cows on the same acreage and rotation if I buffer fed maize during spring and other periods when I'm tight for grass. Only problem is you need to be set up for it. It would require a very long and narrow pit and I recon I'd have to feed 1 ton a day.

That's the theory anyway. I'm sure someone on here will prove me wrong though...:(

All in all how many dairy farm grazing blocks are stocked to the max? We are stocked at something around 2.6lu/ha, between land improvement (both soil fertility, reseeding and drainage/access), 3.2 or higher should be well achievable here, alongside that we still have the heifers on the home block, and cut a fair bit of silage. Sorting out these low hanging fruit makes alot more sense than looking at becoming heavily dependant on maize.

Dawggone

Timmaay wrote: »

Think maize has been well discussed already here, ask lads about how it worked out for them in 2012 ha! Last year the economics certainly favored growing maize over grass silage but that was an exceptional one in 10 year summer. On 90% of Irish dairy farms it should be all about growing grass, grass and more grass and have the cows graze that for as long as is possible. I used a tidy amount of maize all winter and the cows are still buffer fed on it, but the economics of it don't excite me at all.

I couldn't agree more Tim. Maize in Ireland is way too unpredictable, especially north of the Wexford/Limerick line.
Fag box input cost for maize : seed €60/ha. Weeds €30/ha.
Plough/plant/harvest are all costs but the feed out cost is a b*tch. If maize could be grazed it would be the job!

What I keep saying is don't believe all the talk about grass being the most competitive and that the Europeans can't compete...also grass can only take you so far on milk yields.

freedominacup

Dawggone wrote: »

I couldn't agree more Tim. Maize in Ireland is way too unpredictable, especially north of the Wexford/Limerick line.
Fag box input cost for maize : seed €60/ha. Weeds €30/ha.
Plough/plant/harvest are all costs but the feed out cost is a b*tch. If maize could be grazed it would be the job!

What I keep saying is don't believe all the talk about grass being the most competitive and that the Europeans can't compete...also grass can only take you so far on milk yields.

You wouldn't get it done for those costs per acre here dawg.

Cow Porter

all in maize last year 18 ton crop cost 64 euro per ton. could argue some of the costs you'd have whatever was in the field e.g land charge, plastic cover, slurry, and some fert.

if it was a 20 ton crop would be 58 euro per ton, and if a 15 ton crop would be 77!! according to teagasc calculator its worth max 50. if you cant get the tons its a loosing battle. tmr cost less this year with meal added in vs maize (only difference was maize was paid for)

not growing on own land this year and if meal price does increase there is always beet available to purchase.