Mixed advice from Teagasc

John_F

Just reading the independant today and Liam Fitzgerald (beef section) headlines 'Hold off nitrogen use until prospect of milder weather' - a clear and obvious statement to me. a copy of his article is available here

However on the 23rd of Feburary John Donworth (Dairy section) says "Many dairy farmers have stopped spreading bagged Nitrogen. Their reasoning: why spread bagged Nitrogen since ground temperatures are so low and there is little or no grass growth. However, I look at it quite differently. Ground conditions for spreading could not be better. Fair enough there is no growth at present, but getting the Nitrogen out is a job done at an increasingly busy time of the year.

The Nitrogen won’t disappear and the frost does it no harm. As soon as we get wind from the south, growth will start again. It’s now nearly the first of March, silage is scarce and we need all the grass growth we can get." a copy of this article is available here

So whos right, were farmers right to put out fertiliser or hold off, we didnt put out anything yet as felt it was a waste of time and money until soil temperatures rise [sorry john]

Indubitable

Well if there is anything i have learned, it is do the opposite of whatever you read in the independent which you can't do in this case....

I put out nitrogen while the land is dry, because my land is quite poor so it might be a few weeks before i can get out on the tractor again without cutting of the ground. I think John Donworth is right in saying that it isn't going anywhere (unless you get extremely heavy rain and you have very leechy soil) and that frost won't harm fertiliser

whelan1

i was reading in it today they are saying to feed 8 -9 kg of meal a day where silage / grass is scarce now at this milk price where is the money going to come from for that :eek:

Indubitable

whelan1 wrote: »

i was reading in it today they are saying to feed 8 -9 kg of meal a day where silage / grass is scarce now at this milk price where is the money going to come from for that :eek:

I think teagasc has a very idealistic view of farming.
They do offer some good advice from time to time and some of their studies can be very interesting.

reilig

whelan1 wrote: »

i was reading in it today they are saying to feed 8 -9 kg of meal a day where silage / grass is scarce now at this milk price where is the money going to come from for that :eek:

I'm feeding a lot of meal at the moment as I have not got a lot of silage. Meal at 180 euro a ton is much cheaper than silage at 20 euro per bale. Bales are making 30 euro+ at the moment around here so it is cheaper to buy the meal and I have the facilities to handle a full load at the moment (20 ton) so I can get an even better price per ton. Thankfully I'm not relying on the milk cheque. Hopefully the weinling prices will continue to rise.

tismesoitis

teagasc are a bit of a joke imo... friend of mine works in grange reserch centre and was tellin me about this new suckler herd they're starting with an aim of € 660 per ha. calving has started 30 or so calved and big trouble 6 c sections numerous dead calves and heifers down and all this because the heifers are mud fat!!!! these are some boys to be telling us how to do things.i wonder will the end of year results reflect this trouble and show a very low income per ha or will they be covered up to make everyone outside of farming believe that its easy to make money if you follow the teagasc way!

Indubitable

tismesoitis wrote: »

teagasc are a bit of a joke imo... friend of mine works in grange reserch centre and was tellin me about this new suckler herd they're starting with an aim of € 660 per ha. calving has started 30 or so calved and big trouble 6 c sections numerous dead calves and heifers down and all this because the heifers are mud fat!!!! these are some boys to be telling us how to do things.i wonder will the end of year results reflect this trouble and show a very low income per ha or will they be covered up to make everyone outside of farming believe that its easy to make money if you follow the teagasc way!

I read about that project at the grange centre. There are ways of pre-calving management: i call it straw and instead of 3 buckets of meal per cow they most likely feed, none might be more approriate

irishh_bob

tismesoitis wrote: »

teagasc are a bit of a joke imo... friend of mine works in grange reserch centre and was tellin me about this new suckler herd they're starting with an aim of € 660 per ha. calving has started 30 or so calved and big trouble 6 c sections numerous dead calves and heifers down and all this because the heifers are mud fat!!!! these are some boys to be telling us how to do things.i wonder will the end of year results reflect this trouble and show a very low income per ha or will they be covered up to make everyone outside of farming believe that its easy to make money if you follow the teagasc way!

did they mention how the wintering pad is working out at grange

John_F

tismesoitis wrote: »

teagasc are a bit of a joke imo... friend of mine works in grange reserch centre and was tellin me about this new suckler herd they're starting with an aim of € 660 per ha. calving has started 30 or so calved and big trouble 6 c sections numerous dead calves and heifers down and all this because the heifers are mud fat!!!! these are some boys to be telling us how to do things.i wonder will the end of year results reflect this trouble and show a very low income per ha or will they be covered up to make everyone outside of farming believe that its easy to make money if you follow the teagasc way!

Jaaaeeee!!! what a waste of money and man power, in fairness like

johngalway

My Dad would be with John Donworths POV, to be honest, so would I. Get it out and wait for temps to rise.

John_F

what about volatisation though?? granted that colder air means less is lost to air than in the height of summer, grass needs 5-6 degrees to grow also, i dont get what donworth is saying, all he is saying is get it out before the rain, a good point yes but is there any point getting it out then even, if it does rain, yes it will bring warmer air temperatures but the soil temperature is influenced mainly by leaf cover and will take time to warm up, so if it rains the soil will still stay cold for at least 2 days after the rain in my opinion