Silage 2024

Conversations 3

How's the silage ground traveling this year?

Grazed off? Slurry out? Fert spread?

Or is it like a bog at the moment, a good year for rewetting.

893bet

If get another 3 weeks fine weather might get the last 2023 silage made….

mr.stonewall

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058340151/silage-2024

Floating

grange mac

Presently building my silage arc in anticipation of the 100mm yr is currently showing for the south west from this evening.... Need not say anymore.

TinyMuffin

I’m grazing off the silage that couldn’t be cut last autumn with 15 of the lightest weanlings heifers.

roosterman71

Nothing growing. Sheep went off it end of December and nothing has come back yet. Too wet in most places to travel. Few spots might be OK. Was hoping this week would be relatively dry and I could get some slurry out somewhere to get something going. Not looking likely at the minute though

stanflt

Nice cover of 7-800 on mine now - was grazed till mid December- got slurry in late Jan early feb- did a small bit of tracking around the gates but nothing major- 8 weeks till cutting

Tea cakes

Hi all, lots of grass on the silage ground right now, it wasn't grazed off as tight as I would have liked at the tail end of last year because of the wet, and haven't been able to get it grazed this spring either for the same reason.

I have weanlings and lighter cattle on some of it but they won't have it cleaned off by the time I'd like to close up and spread fert. Would the quality be badly affected if I don't graze it off and just spread the fert and let it on as is?

Cavanjack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121917209#Comment_121917209

I wouldn’t worry too much about it. Have grazed in the past and not grazed in the past before closing up. Tests have all been similar. Cutting date and weather is what determines quality imo

DBK1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121917209#Comment_121917209

I’m in the same boat, I’m grazing it now with yearlings but I don’t know if I’m doing more harm than good.

There’s a lot of grass on some fields, probably 5 bales/acre if it was cut and baled now. The cattle are grazing it but clean outs are poor. Ground conditions are soft so they’re walking a lot of it into the ground. This could leave the silage a lot poorer than if I had left it and gave it a light application of fert and cut it for silage in the middle of April.

Its the driest land I have so if I don’t let them graze it then they’ll be back in the shed and I don’t want that either so I’m going to persevere but only time will tell id it was the right or wrong decision. Ask me next winter when I get silage samples done!

Good loser

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121917209#Comment_121917209

Graze away up to April 1 to 5. Then silage fert and roll when conditions suit.

Silverdream

Grazing silage ground at the moment with 200-250kg heifers. Anyting heavier and they are just ploughing the ground. I got some slurry out last week, its well washed in already and if April drys out then it would be silage ready by May 1st.

Conversations 3

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121920293#Comment_121920293

What's the advantage of rolling it?

Some are for and some are against

Good loser

It presses the up/down bits of clay into level so less risk of clay contamination in the silage. The more severely poached the grass the greater the need to roll. Rolling will also level any ruts left by spinner when ground was soft.

Eibhir

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058340151/silage-2024

Very wet, will be a late Spring.

Seadin

Won't be spreading no fertilizer until after mid April and Il be spreading it with a quad bike.

Eibhir

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121935337#Comment_121935337

JP is giving me the lend of a helicopter

Seadin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121935487#Comment_121935487

🤣🤣🤣

kk.man

Very dry ground here...went with tractor and spiner... gave up on Saturday..never saw ground as wet.. beside some of the top tillage fields in the country

Danzy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121935650#Comment_121935650

I walked the place today, it was like the penance of Christ, fell 3 times.

Never seen it as wet. High clay content here in soil but every where is full to the top.

Ground will take a lot to warm up.

Aravo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121935487#Comment_121935487

Word on the street is that JP had a helicopter on standby for some kind of prison break. But that plan is no longer proceeding.

Eibhir

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121939078#Comment_121939078

😂😂 He has a few I'd say. He'll have to convert one into a fertiliser spreader. Need a calm day.

roosterman71

It's looking like first cuts will be late this year. How many of ye have slurry on the silage ground and fertiliser out? Or be able to get some out?

Is it too late now for slurry seeing as we're <2 months from a lot of it being cut and no dry weather on the horizon. Would bagged fert be a better option for many now if it dries a bit?

whelan2

We didn't do our first cut until mid June last year. It was the best of stuff. We grazed it off fully first before putting out slurry and fertiliser. Aas a late turnout last year. The dates dont matter, too many get hung up on early silage, fine if you've to do 4 cuts or whatever.

Cavanjack

Me old lad never cut until mid June at the earliest and never panicked about it either. Got on the best. It’s nice to get cut early but if you can’t so be it. Weather is out of our control.

Reggie.

Loads of slurry abandoned here for silage ground. Will have to go out after the first cuts

Conversations 3

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121942841#Comment_121942841

When would the grass start to head out?

I suppose if it's grazed off tight first it would delay it

whelan2

Cut it before it heads out. Normally 6 weeks growing time

limo_100

No Slurry on the silage ground this year combination of too wet and some of it is reseeded so don't want to rip the skin on it has it was sown last June 13 and has seen notting only rain since. so not gonna go with slurry. Was think 3 bags of 10-10-20 or 3 of 18-6-12 and one bag of can or urea 2 weeks later would that be good enough?

Land hasn't got slurry last year either and some is only bought it is low in p and k

older by the day

I might have to skip the slurry on the first cut as its fairly high. A couple of bags of 18.6.12 and a bag of urea, might be OK.

I'll go heavy for the second

Jb1989

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121945658#Comment_121945658

Go heavy now. Might be no second.

ABitofsense

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121945658#Comment_121945658

This is what I'm doing based on my soil samples and no slurry (was discussing with Advisor). Its going to be the 1st year that slurry hasn't being on the ground for silage.

mr.stonewall

That what Id fear is a drought.

tanko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121945739#Comment_121945739

Don't suppose you know when this drought going to start???????

orm0nd

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121944923#Comment_121944923

Very light soil here, our silage headed out and got stemmy in may last year year during the dry spell. The world didn’t come to an end. Maybe fed a little extra meal at stages, still 4 to 5 weeks fodder left and looks it might be needed.

mr.stonewall

As much as I know is something. The sooner the better. I would nearly take 2 of them

Conversations 3

Would it be ok to take a cut off fresh reseed sown in September, didn't get any fertilizer or grazing due to the weather?

Very soft ground at the moment.

limo_100

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121945973#Comment_121945973

Id be a shame to make a mess of it after getting the reseed done

Conversations 3

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121947064#Comment_121947064

Yea, I thought it was advisable to leave the reseed for a year to tiller out before taking a cut from it.

GrasstoMilk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121945546#Comment_121945546

Not nearly enough. 3 bags of 0 7 30, 2 at the very least and 80 units of N

that’s what we put on any ground that doesn’t get slurry. You’ll get the crop if you put it on

limo_100

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121947604#Comment_121947604

How many units are in a bag of can? and how many bags of can do you put out per acre after the 0-7-30. Do you apply both at the same time?

mr.stonewall

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121953452#Comment_121953452

27 unit of can in a bag. So to get to the magic 80 units, you will need 3 bags/ac. If it was me I would spread 1.5 bags of can and the 0-7-30 at the next available opportunity and follow up 3 weeks later with the remaining N. Only if it suited. The amount of 0-7-30 will depend on the soil indexes.

If you want a crop of quality, you will have to feed it. Skimping on N will also drop the protein of the silage

Dunedin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121945973#Comment_121945973

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121947357#Comment_121947357

the best option is to graze any new reseed first with sheep as it’s easy on the ground and will be grazed tight and it’ll help the tillering out.

I have new reseed that I’ve been waiting patiently since last September to graze but simply too wet to even walk out in 😡😡

However, problem at rhr minute is the grass is growing and it’s still too wet to look out in and soon the grass will be too strong to graze.

So there’ll be no choice but to just cut for silage if the weather takes up any time in the next few years.

green daries

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121944294#Comment_121944294

Hearing that around here too the last few days fella with pipes had to pull out of a place yesterday.…

Just finished grazing the siale ground yesterday. It's in good shape for slurry now, it's a good dry field. There is a big patch in the middle that never grows anything other than tall stalky grass. I don't want to go reseeding the field as others are penned in for this and next year so I was wondering if I spread some seed with fert spreader on that patch with fert spreader before slurry would it be any good or a waste of time.

dmakc

Say your silage field K is index 3, so the recommended K application is 90 units or whatever

Is this 90 units supposed to go on before or after silage is cut? It's one thing that gets me every year.

I have plenty of slurry but it's too late to go out pre-cut now esp with a dribble bar. So after would be highly desirable

Conversations 3

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122025367#Comment_122025367

Last year the silage ground got no slurry so I put on a bag of Potash per acre with the silage fertilizer.

Was meant to put another bag out at the end of the year but weather didn't allow.

So will do same again this year.

dmakc

Sorry in simpler terms, the field is at index 3, does this mean

a) it's ideal for growing silage now with just N application needed, and the recommended 90 units (etc) of K should be given afterwards to build the field index back to 3 post-silage?

b) Alternatively, what would applying 90 units beforehand do, would the silage be better? Or is it the same result for silage, but keeps the field at index 3 post-cutting.

roosterman71

When were the samples taken to determine the index? If this year, yer probably OK to spread the K after cutting

dmakc

Yea samples were early January and no pending slurry/dung distorting results

roosterman71

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122025804#Comment_122025804

Probably OK to go after cutting then to replace what's taken