Dairy chit chat II

Brown Podzol · 28-06-2018 08:10AM

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

I’ve been giving this a lot of thought BP.
I’ve never seen an umbilical in action, but what I’ve seen in photos looks to be the exact same pump (Bauer) that I use to pump from rivers. No bother pumping sufficient amounts of water with that pump. It’s the application that’s the issue.

I just can’t think of any way of getting the water out without an irrigation reel. The rain gun is important because it cuts out a tractor and reel being involved in the process, and it’s properly and evenly applied 80m at a time...

I spoke with my irrigation guy this morning about finding something to replace a reel and he’s stumped.

If ye can collectively think up of some way of applying the water in the field...??

The pump needs about 120hp to drive it.
(Also it’s insane to pay €100+/hr just to pump water)

30mm is enough to get grass growing at any one time. If you could get 30mm out in sub 30* temps grass would explode. The feed value would be poor but you’d have plenty of it.

The only solution for applying the water in the field that I can think of is buying a second hand reel...€2-4K.

Big shout out to a former boardsie that spent a day of his holidays hauling grain yesterday and again today!

Thanks for that Dawg. One contractor I spoke to suggested using a dribble bar behind a second tractor placing the water directly on the ground starting late in the evening and working through the night.
Looks like costing c. €120/ha to apply 30mm, now if I thought I could grow 100 kg dm say over 10 days that's a ton costing 12 cent a kg for the water. Expensive. But the alternatives are also expensive. Depending on how long this drought lasts its not how expensive the the alternatives are its will they be avalaible at all.

Doing half of the farm would allow me to allocate 8 to 10 kg dm assuming no growth on the rest of the farm.

Ok for now as we have 2 bales per cow quality silage and half ton fresh weight maize silage/beet avalaible. We are currently z grazing grass that was destined for bales.

dar31 · 28-06-2018 08:16AM

The slurry lagoon here is over half full and hasn't been agitated in the last month, so the crust is well settled.
Would spreading the water slurry sucked off the bottom be of benefit spread with traling shoe at say 3000gl ac on some better fields.?

alps · 28-06-2018 10:26AM

dar31 wrote: »

The slurry lagoon here is over half full and hasn't been agitated in the last month, so the crust is well settled.
Would spreading the water slurry sucked off the bottom be of benefit spread with traling shoe at say 3000gl ac on some better fields.?

3000gals no good from a moisture point of view, but might get your cover back up quicker once rain comes..

I'm just wondering if we got contractor to inject in washing, working across the slope, would the slits created catch more water when it rains..

I know a man in galway, top class operator, spreads his dairy washing this way every summer for that reason..

Keepgrowing · 28-06-2018 10:29AM

https://www.teagasc.ie/rural-economy/farm-management/farming-in-difficult-weather-conditions/

Gawddawggonnit · 28-06-2018 11:48AM

Keepgrowing wrote: »

https://www.teagasc.ie/rural-economy/farm-management/farming-in-difficult-weather-conditions/

Quick read of that and seems pretty good advice...except the spreading of N.

Spreading N is NOT a solution to drought and could cause a lot more problems...

Gawddawggonnit · 28-06-2018 11:59AM

Brown Podzol wrote: »

Thanks for that Dawg. One contractor I spoke to suggested using a dribble bar behind a second tractor placing the water directly on the ground starting late in the evening and working through the night.
Looks like costing c. €120/ha to apply 30mm, now if I thought I could grow 100 kg dm say over 10 days that's a ton costing 12 cent a kg for the water. Expensive. But the alternatives are also expensive. Depending on how long this drought lasts its not how expensive the the alternatives are its will they be avalaible at all.

Doing half of the farm would allow me to allocate 8 to 10 kg dm assuming no growth on the rest of the farm.

Ok for now as we have 2 bales per cow quality silage and half ton fresh weight maize silage/beet avalaible. We are currently z grazing grass that was destined for bales.

Time of day when irritating is not important when giving 30mm.
Could you not stick your own tractor on his pump?
The dribble bar would work fine but you need another tractor and driver to move a few mètres an hour...

You may be underestimating the return you’d get from 30mm. It really will explode but I find that the feed value plummets because it grows so fast.

The rule of thumb we use is give about 90% of their nutrition with other forage and treat the grass as gutfill.

( please don’t get on my case because I’ve insulted the grass gods!)

stretch film · 28-06-2018 04:57PM

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

Quick read of that and seems pretty good advice...except the spreading of N.

Spreading N is NOT a solution to drought and could cause a lot more problems...

tell us more........the 60mm soil deficit threshold is unlikely to have been breached on alot of areas yet..
Met Eireann have my area at 60-80mm.

Gawddawggonnit · 28-06-2018 06:08PM

stretch film wrote: »

tell us more........the 60mm soil deficit threshold is unlikely to have been breached on alot of areas yet..
Met Eireann have my area at 60-80mm.

Soil moisture deficits (smd) are just an indication of the depth of drought in an area. You could have land that’s much drier or wetter...even within the same field there can be huge variations.
When smd rises over 80mm you’ve got nothing...just wait for rain.

The Teagasc cure-all of giving more N to everything that doesn’t look the job, does not stand in a drought.
The line about spread a bag (or two!) before it rains could be dangerous or even downright stupid. If *significant* rainfall doesn’t occur and you’ve the N spread then the roots could rise towards the moisture (and N) and scorch the ringer off them....

* significant rainfall would be 15mm+*

Buford T. Justice XIX · 28-06-2018 07:17PM

Link to the current weeks Lyons herd trial in the tweet below.
https://twitter.com/ucdagfood/status/1012369985614893057?s=19

Gawddawggonnit · 29-06-2018 01:57PM

https://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/spreading-25000-gallons-of-water-per-acre-in-an-effort-to-boost-grass-growth/

Buford T. Justice XIX · 29-06-2018 02:55PM

The difference between low and high organic matter in the ground is fairly obvious. And a bit of drought thrown in for good measure.

Say my name · 29-06-2018 03:15PM

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

The difference between low and high organic carbon in the ground is fairly obvious. And a bit of drought thrown in for good measure.

Fyp.

Say my name · 29-06-2018 03:16PM

Andrew Smith (@LauraHillsLamb) Tweeted:
One vegan told me more organic carbon in soil and improved water holding capacity in soil was a bad thing because it interupted the water cycle. https://twitter.com/LauraHillsLamb/status/1011056154129022977?s=17

Say my name · 29-06-2018 03:21PM

Tow And Fert Ireland (@TowAndFert) Tweeted:
Applied 20 units of liquid urea & 8 L/ac of our test formula "Fortified Seaweed" to this ryegrass field on Tuesday 19th June at 3pm in the scorching sun - it was cut 3 weeks ago for haylage. This part of South Wexford has had no rain in 3 weeks and only 6.5 mm rain since May 11th https://t.co/0KFZlJ2knn https://twitter.com/TowAndFert/status/1012447828843646976?s=17

charolais0153 · 29-06-2018 03:35PM

Say my name wrote: »

Tow And Fert Ireland (@TowAndFert) Tweeted:
Applied 20 units of liquid urea & 8 L/ac of our test formula "Fortified Seaweed" to this ryegrass field on Tuesday 19th June at 3pm in the scorching sun - it was cut 3 weeks ago for haylage. This part of South Wexford has had no rain in 3 weeks and only 6.5 mm rain since May 11th https://t.co/0KFZlJ2knn https://twitter.com/TowAndFert/status/1012447828843646976?s=17

Must be italian rygrass or something

Say my name · 29-06-2018 03:51PM

charolais0153 wrote: »

Must be italian rygrass or something

Ah you're reading the replies.

Doesn't really matter. It's still impressive.
The seaweed juice will help with the palatability big time and make up for any nutrient deficiencies and kick on growth in it's own right.
The days of just n p and k are finished.

Plus the big one for the dry. Foliar feeding.

wrangler · 29-06-2018 03:55PM

Say my name wrote: »

Ah you're reading the replies.

Doesn't really matter. It's still impressive.
The seaweed juice will help with the palatability big time and make up for any nutrient deficiencies and kick on growth in it's own right.
The days of just n p and k are finished.

Plus the big one for the dry. Foliar feeding.

It must be 3 years at least since it was being demonstrated around here.....haven't heard a thing about it since....says it all really

PS it didn't work here anyway

Say my name · 29-06-2018 04:06PM

wrangler wrote: »

It must be 3 years at least since it was being demonstrated around here.....haven't heard a thing about it since....says it all really

PS it didn't work here anyway

That's what I was wondering about since you posted about that before.

You're on limestone land. Did they use the seaweed juice or ground lime or what did they use with the liquid urea?
10/1 they used the ground lime in your case.

I'm getting a response to liquid urea here in this weather.
I've also gotten a response last year to diluted seawater and it darkened up the grass like in their Twitter post. Cows swept the grass after it too.

Edit: if the ground was damp or wet there'd be no difference in this and granular.

wrangler · 29-06-2018 04:20PM

Say my name wrote: »

That's what I was wondering about since you posted about that before.

You're on limestone land. Did they use the seaweed juice or ground lime or what did they use with the liquid urea?
10/1 they used the ground lime in your case.

I'm getting a response to liquid urea here in this weather.
I've also gotten a response last year to diluted seawater and it darkened up the grass like in their Twitter post. Cows swept the grass after it too.

Edit: if the ground was damp or wet there'd be no difference in this and granular.

It seems to have died a death any way, there was a lot of demonstrations around here.
Being a natural sceptic, I wasn't the ideal choice for promoting anything.
It should've taken off if it was as good as the they claimed

GrasstoMilk · 29-06-2018 04:27PM

Say my name wrote: »

Ah you're reading the replies.

Doesn't really matter. It's still impressive.
The seaweed juice will help with the palatability big time and make up for any nutrient deficiencies and kick on growth in it's own right.
The days of just n p and k are finished.

Plus the big one for the dry. Foliar feeding.

Ped, it was cut 3 weeks ago, it got spread with that machine ten days ago.
Yes it looks very green but it's an Italian ryegrass or a hybrid more than likely down this year. That stuff grows for sport fert or no fert. It's real hungry grass and will take it out of the ground if it's not fed to it

Say my name · 29-06-2018 04:30PM

wrangler wrote: »

It seems to have died a death any way, there was a lot of demonstrations around here.
Being a natural sceptic, I wasn't the ideal choice for promoting anything.
It should've taken off if it was as good as the they claimed

We've never had the ideal climate (for it) to really show any difference. Granular works fine in normal irish conditions.

It developed in New Zealand. It's kind of new Zealand weather we have now.

Say my name · 29-06-2018 04:33PM

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

Ped, it was cut 3 weeks ago, it got spread with that machine ten days ago.
Yes it looks very green but it's an Italian ryegrass or a hybrid more than likely down this year. That stuff grows for sport fert or no fert. It's real hungry grass and will take it out of the ground if it's not fed to it

I'll bow to your knowledge on that because I've no experience of IR.
Let alone in these conditions.

Hell of a tweet though to get everyone's attention.

GrasstoMilk · 29-06-2018 04:36PM

Say my name wrote: »

I'll bow to your knowledge on that because I've no experience of IR.

Hell of a tweet though to get everyone's attention.

Don't want to dismiss your interests in this area as that's what you are into but I'm a bit sceptical of that tweet, how ever it is very green so it has to have taken up something.

I was always of the opinion that you needed damp conditions for liquid fert as it would burn the leaf or evaporate

Say my name · 29-06-2018 04:45PM

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

Don't want to dismiss your interests in this area as that's what you are into but I'm a bit sceptical of that tweet, how ever it is very green so it has to have taken up something.

I was always of the opinion that you needed damp conditions for liquid fert as it would burn the leaf or evaporate

Waffle or dawg would be experts on it here.

I just used it at low rates in addition to the gran in early morning's with the dew.
Throw a few buckets into the basket of the sprayer and dissolve it with the volume washer into sprayer sort of thing.

Mooooo · 29-06-2018 05:49PM

8% of cows bulling in last 2 days....

GrasstoMilk · 29-06-2018 06:06PM

Mooooo wrote: »

8% of cows bulling in last 2 days....

Yikes!! Any reason as to why?

Gawddawggonnit · 29-06-2018 07:09PM

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

Quick read of that and seems pretty good advice...except the spreading of N.

Spreading N is NOT a solution to drought and could cause a lot more problems...

Boards.ie going nationwide...finally some (very little) common sense.

https://www.farmersjournal.ie/heatwave-advice-fertiliser-changes-384006

Gawddawggonnit · 29-06-2018 07:10PM

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

The difference between low and high organic matter in the ground is fairly obvious. And a bit of drought thrown in for good measure.

No drought there Chief.

Gawddawggonnit · 29-06-2018 07:22PM

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

Ped, it was cut 3 weeks ago, it got spread with that machine ten days ago.
Yes it looks very green but it's an Italian ryegrass or a hybrid more than likely down this year. That stuff grows for sport fert or no fert. It's real hungry grass and will take it out of the ground if it's not fed to it

I absolutely hate IR. Sucks the life out of ground taking every available drop of nutrition and water. Maize after IR always needs about 75mm more water.

Funny how the purveyors of snake oil appeared when all that’s needed is a good drop of dihydrogen monoxide...even though it is highly corrosive!

Gawddawggonnit · 29-06-2018 07:25PM

Mooooo wrote: »

8% of cows bulling in last 2 days....

Was grass highly loaded with N?

Dairy chit chat II

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