Stuck in the mud - making progress in one of the wettest springs we've had

Wed, 29 May, 2024 - 10:09

Ciaran Bartley

Weather hasn’t been in my favour now in quite some time. I had a few false dawns over the past few weeks when the sun began to shine but this was followed every few days by severe downpours which ended me back at square one in terms of ground conditions.

I managed to cut out a few paddocks on my drier land in late April, which yielded 28 bales. This was grass that had received slurry in late January and had become too strong to graze due to delayed turnout.

I have so far failed to cut any main crop of silage. Ground conditions are still too wet, and I need at least four to five hot, dry days to avoid damaging the soil structure with machinery.

Just before the weather broke, I managed to reseed a 12-acre field that had been sprayed off since last June. I had failed to get it reseeded twice since then due to incessant rainfall. I sprayed it off for a third time in early May and power-harrowed and seeded the field two weeks later.

I rolled the field and spread three bags of 10-10-20 on the field after seeding. I opted for a red clover silage mix in the field using a mix the department had allowed under its red clover silage scheme.

The mix consisted of 3.5kg of Barwave, 2kg of Aberwolf, 2kg of Abermagic, 4kg of red clover and 0.5kg of white clover in a 12kg bag.

I had limed the land several times over the past four years, with the final 2t/ac spread in autumn 2023.

I plan to cut this land three times per acre for silage over the next number of years. The land would have a heavy clay soil type, so while I have drained it extensively, I will have to be very careful when spreading slurry, fertiliser or harvesting silage so as to not compact the plant, which will kill it.

If ground conditions are perfect after cutting, I will apply 3,000gal of slurry, and If not, I will apply three bags of 0-7-30 per acre.

I have my own Welger baler for harvesting silage, so I am avoiding carrying in the like of the McHale fusion baler, which would be significantly heavier than my baler and hopefully avoid doing damage to the soil.

Calves are all at grass and will receive their first worm dose soon. They are eating significantly higher volumes of meal this year than in previous years with some eating over 2.5kg per day.

I’m not sure what the reason is for this, but I am cutting them back to around 1kg per day soon as their current intake levels of meal are too expensive to justify.

Yearling cattle are moving through grass well and visually look like they are thriving. I will weigh mid-season and assess what cattle will be selected for feeding from late summer onwards for a Halloween finish date.

I may sell some of my early maturing heifers live around July. I find this option good for a cash injection at what is otherwise a lean time of year on beef farms.

What I’m really banking on this year is a very dry summer. The level of poaching that occurred on my farm in the last 12 months has led to infestations of buttercups and some rushes reappearing.

Once conditions are suitable, I will get out and spray rushes with MCPA and buttercups with 24D. I am currently trying to top the fields where rushes are strong. I will spray the young rushes when they re-emerge in a few weeks, as I find this gives a better impact.