spreading fertilizer

GERMAN ROCKS · 02-02-2011 08:02PM #1

saw a neighbour spreading fertilizer today. is it not a bit too early yet??

Bodacious · 02-02-2011 08:11PM

GERMAN ROCKS wrote: »

saw a neighbour spreading fertilizer today. is it not a bit too early yet??

could it be granulated lime he had in it?

stanflt · 02-02-2011 08:20PM

GERMAN ROCKS wrote: »

saw a neighbour spreading fertilizer today. is it not a bit too early yet??

advised by teagasc to spread nitrogen on reseeded land asap

BeeDI · 02-02-2011 08:38PM

stanflt wrote: »

advised by teagasc to spread nitrogen on reseeded land asap

But that's only for the "better farmers"

dar31 · 02-02-2011 08:45PM

GERMAN ROCKS wrote: »

saw a neighbour spreading fertilizer today. is it not a bit too early yet??

no, spread some prilled urea last week, but got to windy and stopped, will spread some more early next week.
soil temp last week was 7, needs to be 7-9 for urea.

leg wax · 02-02-2011 09:04PM

stanflt wrote: »

advised by teagasc to spread nitrogen on reseeded land asap

if they said that, its too early

reilig · 02-02-2011 09:20PM

BeeDI wrote: »

But that's only for the "better farmers"

It'll be 6 weeks before we spread any around here. Puts us at the bottom of the pile

Muckit · 02-02-2011 09:23PM

reilig wrote: »

It'll be 6 weeks before we spread any around here. Puts us at the bottom of the pile

Yep, St. Patrick's Day is the date we always have circled:rolleyes:

Saying that, it was a good fortnight after that last year:eek:

stanflt · 02-02-2011 10:04PM

Muckit wrote: »

Yep, St. Patrick's Day is the date we always have circled:rolleyes:

i hope to have first round of grazing done by then.

BeeDI · 02-02-2011 10:18PM

reilig wrote: »

It'll be 6 weeks before we spread any around here. Puts us at the bottom of the pile

I'm still looking at half of last years stuff still looking at me. There was unreal grass growth last year without any much help from the bag. At least that's what I found. Nothing more annoying than grass getting too strong and stemmy in front of stock. Especially if you had been fertilizing regularly. I know I could bale it, but to get my contractor to do five bales here and ten there, is just not going to work in my case.

Birdnuts · 02-02-2011 11:51PM

leg wax wrote: »

if they said that, its too early

Indeed - Teagasc seem to think the averge farmer has a bottomless pit of cash to waste on poorly timed/excessive/wasted inputs:rolleyes:

reilig · 03-02-2011 09:47AM

stanflt wrote: »

i hope to have first round of grazing done by then.

You must be down south cause we're North west and won't have too many cattle out before may 1st.

5live · 03-02-2011 10:21AM

Soil temp hit 8 yesterday so am going out next week if no rain forecast. If you are spreading can then i think you get an ok response at 6 as long as rain doesnt wash it away

thetangler · 03-02-2011 10:39AM

reilig wrote: »

You must be down south cause we're North west and won't have too many cattle out before may 1st.

May day is also my target anything earlier is a bonus.

Tipp Man · 03-02-2011 10:39AM

Yeah Urea going ot this week

very poor grass in the cow paddocks that were closed early in the autumn - need to get them moving now the temps have picked up a bit

Could be a late spring

funny man · 03-02-2011 11:10AM

No not too early, if soil temp is above 5 it will be taken up. just wondering when should ya spread urea on paddocks with heavy covers before or after grazing?

snowman707 · 03-02-2011 11:45AM

we have 80K gallons of well watered slurry out , will be going out again end of Feb, no bag will be used until after 20th |March at the earliest , Mid west Region

Figerty · 03-02-2011 02:26PM

Unless you are in Belmullet it's still too cold for fertiliser.

http://www.met.ie/latest/agricultural.asp

reilig · 03-02-2011 02:34PM

Figerty wrote: »

Unless you are in Belmullet it's still too cold for fertiliser.

http://www.met.ie/latest/agricultural.asp

That's what I was thinking. Air Temps are up at between 6 and 9 degrees. How could ground temps be up to 6 yet?? The nights are still almost down at freezing and we've had one of the driest January's for 14 years - loads of frost though.

Birdnuts · 03-02-2011 06:04PM

Figerty wrote: »

Unless you are in Belmullet it's still too cold for fertiliser.

http://www.met.ie/latest/agricultural.asp

Exactly - people seem to have very short memories, there was little or no grass growth over the bulk of the country last spring until well into April. There is no point in putting out this stuff until the threat of harsh frosts has receded - for the bulk of the country this would be the end of March at the very earliest.

blue5000 · 03-02-2011 10:44PM

I haven't even spread slurry yet, reckon I'll get better value from the N in it in a couple of weeks when temperature rises a bit. I wonder do we really need 90 units/acre for first cut silage. If it got 60 units and 2000 gal cattle slurry per acre would yields be back much?

I wonder what the economics of closing up maybe 10-15% more silage ground and giving it less N per acre would be, any thoughts?

Muckit · 04-02-2011 03:10PM

Birdnuts wrote: »

Exactly - people seem to have very short memories, there was little or no grass growth over the bulk of the country last spring until well into April. There is no point in putting out this stuff until the threat of harsh frosts has receded - for the bulk of the country this would be the end of March at the very earliest.

I think too many lads were reading the farmers journal about 'spring' grass and believing it as gospel!

:D Most years for most of the country, 'May day' is when you have 'spring' grass!!:D:D Justin ya codder ya!! Stop trying to pull the wool over our eyes!!

reilig · 04-02-2011 03:18PM

blue5000 wrote: »

I wonder what the economics of closing up maybe 10-15% more silage ground and giving it less N per acre would be, any thoughts?

Simple economics. More Silage ground + less fertilizer = probably the same amount of silage but less pasture for your animals.

pajero12 · 04-02-2011 03:26PM

Bodacious wrote: »

could it be granulated lime he had in it?

Wouldn't you know by the dust?

linebacker52 · 04-02-2011 03:32PM

spread 23 units of urea tuesday cows going out next week.i think its well worth the risk far better to have it spread than sitting around the yard

funny man · 04-02-2011 06:50PM

Muckit wrote: »

I think too many lads were reading the farmers journal about 'spring' grass and believing it as gospel! :D Most years for most of the country, 'May day' is when you have 'spring' grass!!:D:D Justin ya codder ya!! Stop trying to pull the wool over our eyes!!

All over the country Dairy cows will be turned out to grass next week, this grass is not grown in the spring but kept over from last autumn and when grazed the growth kick starts and you need some fertilizer in the plant either organic or bag to push growth.

dar31 · 04-02-2011 07:28PM

Muckit wrote: »

I think too many lads were reading the farmers journal about 'spring' grass and believing it as gospel! :D Most years for most of the country, 'May day' is when you have 'spring' grass!!:D:D Justin ya codder ya!! Stop trying to pull the wool over our eyes!!

if you don't try ya wont succeed

Muckit · 04-02-2011 10:39PM

pajero12 wrote: »

Wouldn't you know by the dust?

Granulated lime does not create any white dust, it's brown granules. The spreader alright will have a brown film, but there will be no evidence on fields

Muckit · 04-02-2011 10:51PM

funny man wrote: »

All over the country Dairy cows will be turned out to grass next week, this grass is not grown in the spring but kept over from last autumn and when grazed the growth kick starts and you need some fertilizer in the plant either organic or bag to push growth.

Yes very true funny man. I'd say the frost might have damaged that grass a little though.

In practice also, 'on/off' grazing that may be required until growth levels meet herd demand, is really only feasable on dairy farms. Suckler/beef lads want an all or nothing approach, 'once there're out, there out'.

There are some grass managment tips beef farmers can pick up from dairy lads, but not everything trandfers simply from one enterprise to the other.

Until theres more money to be made ibeef, I don't think farmers in this sector should be expected (or will) put in any more effort than is necessary. Why make life hard?

funny man · 05-02-2011 12:13AM

Muckit wrote: »

Yes very true funny man. I'd say the frost might have damaged that grass a little though.

In practice also, 'on/off' grazing that may be required until growth levels meet herd demand, is really only feasable on dairy farms. Suckler/beef lads want an all or nothing approach, 'once there're out, there out'.

There are some grass managment tips beef farmers can pick up from dairy lads, but not everything trandfers simply from one enterprise to the other.

Until theres more money to be made ibeef, I don't think farmers in this sector should be expected (or will) put in any more effort than is necessary. Why make life hard?

No damage done this year is only slight compared to last year, though for the second year in arow there is less grass on the farm from when it was closed in the autumn.
Not many farmers that i know practice on/off grazing especially when supply is below demand and can't be filled with a couple of kilo's of meal, i prefer to go out by day and feed by night untill supply is adequate.
you made an interesting comment in

Until theres more money to be made ibeef

, maybe if more focus was made on stopping paddocks in early autumn and putting in some roadways it may make the enterprise more profitable and it shouldn't make life any harder, i know some suckler farmers who set up the farm like a dairy farm and go out early with just cows and calves graze stopped paddocks and the silage ground and keep all other stock in till they've enough grass.

Muckit · 06-02-2011 08:15PM

i prefer to go out by day and feed by night untill supply is adequate.

Sorry I mightn't have the right terminology, but that's what I was talking about by 'on/off grazing';) My point was that how could suckler farmers do this on fragmented farms??

maybe if more focus was made on stopping paddocks in early autumn and putting in some roadways it may make the enterprise more profitable

Farm roadways would bring with it many advantages, but are very costly. Also there's a big difference in driving in dairy cows for milking and trying to round up suckler cows with calves!:D

I do agree with you that suckler farmers could learn a bit more about trying to get grass growing earlier, if this were possible. I was always of the opinion (rightly or wrongly) that paddocks were better to be cleaned off well in autumn to allow light into grow new grass in spring. But I also know that you need grass to grow grass so perhaps you are right

spreading fertilizer

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