Spreading Fertilizer in cold weather?

Western Pomise

Have 2 tonne 18:6:12 to put out on an out farm,ground was ate to the ground by sheep till late December.Was going to spread tomorrow (P/T farmer)....limestone ground....but forecast for next few days is avg temps of only 2 to 4 degrees.If it comes so hard sure the nitrogen would not do anything this week?

Considering waiting until next wkd now to see if weather softens at all by then.Drystock and sheep so only fertilize this ground once a year,in Spring.Anyone plan putting out likes of 18:6:12 during this cold spell or are ye holding back for a rise in temps?

Thanks for any thoughts.

jaymla627

Western Pomise wrote: »

Have 2 tonne 18:6:12 to put out on an out farm,ground was ate to the ground by sheep till late December.Was going to spread tomorrow (P/T farmer)....limestone ground....but forecast for next few days is avg temps of only 2 to 4 degrees.If it comes so hard sure the nitrogen would not do anything this week?

Considering waiting until next wkd now to see if weather softens at all by then.Drystock and sheep so only fertilize this ground once a year,in Spring.Anyone plan putting out likes of 18:6:12 during this cold spell or are ye holding back for a rise in temps?

Thanks for any thoughts.

Noting out yet and will wait till the rain clears mon/tues next week, for all the blowing about early fert and its response, if it had worked lads would be starting their second round in a few days on early dry farms but the covers simply aren't their

lab man

Where's the fellas now that we're saying a 6 weeks ago to just throw it out ???

Burning Tires

lab man wrote: »

Where's the fellas now that we're saying a 6 weeks ago to just throw it out ???

There's only 2 places that fertiliser won't grow grass. In the bag or in the river.

Conditions need to be right at the time of spreading so its merited only in sone cases. Grass has started here this far south

lab man

In west clare here land is in a fair state to be honest we always are a month to 6 weeks behind south Limerick or cork

tanko

I'd leave it til next weekend at least and see how the forecast looks then.
There may be very heavy rain on Monday also.

I says

Monday week before I attempt anything the whole place will get half a bag of urea and then 18-6-12

ganmo

I’m waiting for the ground to dry out a bit, would of put some out early this week but it only landed Wednesday.

GrasstoMilk

jaymla627 wrote: »

Noting out yet and will wait till the rain clears mon/tues next week, for all the blowing about early fert and its response, if it had worked lads would be starting their second round in a few days on early dry farms but the covers simply aren't their

That may be true but as soon as heat dies come my grass will be ready to go. 700 ish on first paddock I grazed!
Too cold for any P based fert ATM. The ground will just lock it up

Timmaay

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

That may be true but as soon as heat dies come my grass will be ready to go. 700 ish on first paddock I grazed!
Too cold for any P based fert ATM. The ground will just lock it up

I put out a bag of urea on anything grazed in feb (40% the farm), that's all back up to about 8/900 now (with some of it grazed again because was too wet to graze what hadn't been grazed in rd1), meanwhile I've other stuff that wasn't grazed and got no fert this spring until today, which is still stubbornly sitting with a cover of 400.

Lessons learnt this year, don't ever be afraid to carry over a decent cover of grass over the winter, take every single opportunity to graze early, and maximize the area grazed in feb, urea out early whenever the conditions allow, and be prepared to put the handbrake back on whenever the misery comes in March ha.

Green farmer

lab man wrote: »

Where's the fellas now that we're saying a 6 weeks ago to just throw it out ???

That would have been teagasc and their grass10 roadshow.

Say my name

Green farmer wrote: »

That would have been teagasc and their grass10 roadshow.

Funilly enough the early applied fert (jan) got a better response than the later (feb) as the soil and air was warmer then.
I'm grazing ground now that got half a bag of urea in January and there's roughly a cover of 2000 on it.
The only trouble is getting the cows to this leased ground but sin e.