Come election time FF/FG will give the usual aul guff and farmers will again fall for it hook,line and sinker .I am hoping we will see 3 healy rae on the ticket for Kerry in the next election that might leave ff/fg with 1 td in Kerry .Unless Fitzmaurice gets strong backing I am fearfull for farmer alliance with local elections in 6 months and not a dicky bird from farmer alliance in the news .You aint going rock up in 6 months time and expect to walk into a job
It's like the new organic farmers, they can't judge it properly for five years at least,
Putting a system up on ETTG in the first year is BS
The same Fitzmaurice that wanted any farm over 100 cows classified as a factory farm? Careful what you wizh for there.
Regarding cutting back on fertilizer, you can't switch the tap off, you got to keep the P & K and PH in order, and with the foliar 7 units ureas plus sulphur plus humates. At it here a good few years now and everything going OK. Admittedly during the very wet weather last Autumn we did go back broadcasting because there were just no weather windows for spraying.
Regarding your comment about off farm income. It doesn't happen by accident. Have been working all the hours god gives all my life to keep all the ball in the air here. Not for everyone. But I enjoy it.
Have you seen much improvement in empty rates or mastitis/SCC since you changed. Have you noticed any change in the soil, better drought tolerance perhaps?
i was unaware of that my apologies.
i was unaware of that my apologies. i thought it was standard for all co-op to test for urea.
The regenerative gurus would tell you as the biology increases you'll unlock more of the background p an k and there'll be no need for any additional p an k inputs.
You'll get by for a few years but it'll catch you up. A poster here reckoned it needs 7 years to really get a system going.
In soil tests I've found it's the silage ground especially where it's near impossible to get biology mining and maintaining or even building indexes that could be possible on grazing ground if you don't give the p and k you'll hit the wall.
The day you or anyone doesn't enjoy it is the day plugs get pulled. There's lots of dissolution in the dairy sector atm the smallest guys with the straw bedding seem to be closing shop this coming year with few more as well. Talking to others with cattle and they are going more with tillage and dropping grass and cattle. One new entrant to tillage had an agronomist out from where they bought the seed. They have to buy the sprays and spray when they say. They had a box of sprays bought for the coming year. The land owner has also a job and home away from the land. That to me is where farming is heading.
Politicians do not solve problem's or create solution for you. I am afraid the present Healy Rae's are hurlers on the ditch unlike there father. They will never enter or support a government.
They will not win three seats the next time, they would have the last time. Strong economy is starting to benefit the government and it quite likely that FF&FG government will be returned with a different third party
Well things are always improving in regards to cow health and performance but that is down to a lot of factors, better breeding, feed management etc. Couldn't put it down to reduced fertilizer. But there is definitely an improvement in the soils structure and the grass rooting system.
For once I agree with everything you have said.
Do you measure grass growth, has there been a rise since you started the foliar craic?
No change. Growing the same amount with less.
How much percentage wise have you reduced N by?
If not in dero you must have a fair amount of feed, do you sell some?
If that's going on we'd better get our politicians on the case saying other countries have an advantage over us in growing grain. And the Spanish boyos need to be curtailed because they can produce fruit better than us using their natural resources as an advantage.
I think it's convenient for people here to blame the big bad EU. The problem I suspect is a lot closer to home
65%
Surplus silage builds up over a few years and then clear it out when there is a "fodder crisis". Have kept a lot of lads going those years.
Did you not post a while back Ginger were using bread or something for the cows? The bought in feed would be allowing you save silage too.
Off track a bit…how much percentage wise have you reduced your meal bill by growing wholecrop, maize etc?
Have you added clover or multi species since you started, or is the reduction solely due to the foliar. Has the reduction increased over time or did you get the 65% the first year?
Interesting thanks.
Yes we feed bread and distillers but that is to reduce meal feeding to cows in Spring.
No clover, it is too unreliable for grazing. We have sown one field of red clover for silage to try.
Well in Spring we would feed 3 Kgs of meal with the good silage and either maize or wholecrop and bread and distillers. If we didn't have them in we would probably need to feed 9 Kgs to get the same result.
The reduction was immediate. You see the 7 units sprayed is as effective as a bag of CAN broadcast.
You need to feed the fungi especially to achieve that or get close to it. Either humic acid and/or diverse sward needed.
Does the foliar feed work on silage ground? Does it need to be multiple passes a time apart or can that much be sprayed at once without burning the leaf?
We do two passes a couple of weeks apart.
We're spreading 8 - 10 units where we used to spread 27 and no drop in grass production yet, sheep will be out grazing until the end of this month,
10 units spread in September, our stocking rate would be just on the 170 kg
starting year 3 of our own trial on red clover and I won't get my hopes up on it as a solution to the situation. It require different management and seems to require alot of minding and patience.
