Silage 2022

Pinsnbushings

Anybody know what is second cut meadowing making this year, it wouldn't have got a lot of fertiliser but in reasonable shape.

Morris Moss

IMG_20220729_154458.jpg

Second cut done and dusted

Jimbo789

I have an old pasture that’s never overly productive in the summer especially if there’s not much rain. 

It got 2 bags of 18-6-12 in early April and was grazed until the 10th June. And got no fertiliser since. 

Almost 8 weeks later the cover is still quite light. You can see the grass is a dull yellowish green and not growing very much. Would it be better to cut whatever is there next week and have the aftergrass coming on or let it bulk up more before cutting. 

At the moment there probably will be 5 or 6 bales/acre. 

whelan2

Cut it now and start again with it. Have 40 acres down atm for bales, be baled tomorrow

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119438640#Comment_119438640

The yellowish colour indicates the grass has ran out of nutrients. 36 units of N is very low for a cut of silage however you had it spread in April and grazed. all the N was used up before you closed for silage. In essence you spread nothing to grow silage. If you have treated it like this for the last few years and cut silage off it then the ground has run out of nutrients to grow grass.

Jimbo789

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119438869#Comment_119438869

Yes I suspect so but the field does need to be reseeded as the percentage of PRG is low. I had too much grass this year and not much demand for silage so I just left it to see what would grow because the cost of fertiliser.

Last year it got 4 bags of 18-6-12 and had 15 bales of hay per acre after being let up for 8 weeks, but got no more fertiliser after that last year.

roosterman71

I've a couple of fields very bad too since it was cut. They got no bag fertiliser this year and maybe 1.5 bags of CAN+S/ac last year. 3k gal/ac pig slurry in March this year and 2.5k gal/acre in June after cutting on the bank holiday weekend. Grass very light, very light colour green too and wouldn't be much higher my ankle after 2 months. I'd say it's crying out for some N.

Mad thing is the first cut off it was savage in terms of quantity compared to other years.

Birdnuts

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119439049#Comment_119439049

I see fields in some parts of the country clearly suffering from moisture deficits - probably a bigger factor in large parts of the country, especcially the East and SE. Think Met Eireann figures back this up too

mr.stonewall

A lot would have to do with the soil moisture deficits that we have expiierenced this summer. Long periods with out rain and then when it came it was heavy and most of it ran off. The rain from last weekend worked wonders and it continued with showers until Wednesday here. Grass has been stressed for most of the summer especially when it would be putting its energy into going to seed, often skipping the leafy stage. Aftergrass all summer has been poor, but noticeable better on wet ground. I have a bit of a field that has a dry and wet half. Currently down for hay😫😫 big difference in the crop. There is a natural build up of N in the soil, and after a drought, it will be released, can see this in action since last week. @Say my name might have more info on this cheap N kick. We are paying now for the great growth all winter

GrasstoMilk

3rd cut growing away surprisingly

cut 4.5 weeks ago. Got 2.8 bags cut sward

got 3k gallons plus cut sward for 1st and 2nd cut

Say my name

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119439106#Comment_119439106

Soil nitrogen mineralisation is teagasc talk for air and heat getting into the soil and soil carbon being gassed off and releasing the nitrates to the roots of the plants. It's why warm dry countries can't build soil carbon but have higher nitrates release into waterways.

If you want to build soil nitrogen (excluding legumes and applied nitrogen) while building carbon is by feeding microbes. They'll eat what you can eat as well as manure, stone dust, any food edible source. The varied the diet the better.

Talk of yellowing. It can be a lack of sulphur, a lack of magnesium (the flip to the magnesium means an excess of calcium ). It's why you're fooling yourself if you don't know what lime you should be spreading if any. Too much raises your pH and that can bring yellowing too. Especially will show if stress comes on.

Another thing too. Your p's and k's could be off the scale but you're complaining of feck all growth. When your Organic matter goes above 10 it really locks up Nitrogen and it can be hard to get growth going. Some describe it as dead ground. Aeration there may be the solution. More carbon is not always the plant growers friend.

Jimbo789

It doesn’t look like the soil moisture deficits will be improving in the next 10 days with warm weather and no rain forecast for next week.

Fine Day

Dry ground here so we will struggle in the coming days to grow grass. I was gonna go with abit of nitrogen last week but I held off at €850/ton quoted I left it. Have alot of silage gathered up so if the need arises I will use it in the coming weeks. Plan to reseed a few fields next April/May as the grass is just not performing the way use to, 12 years since it was last done. Will get soil sampling done beforehand. A couple of other fields done within the last 5 years and they are doing well.

whelan2

Spraying off 11 acres here today

James2022

Silage field got slurry but no fertiliser for second cut. Ended up turning into a field of dandelions so sprayed it which is only stunting it more. Lovely leafy grass now but not enough to cut. Looking back prob should have put out some N but who could have expected all this dry weather. Never had dryer straw so can't complain about a poor second cut yield.

wrangler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119438995#Comment_119438995

There probably wasn't enough P and K in the 18 6 12 last year to grow 15 bales/acre so the land got depleted last year.

Nitrogen would be well gone eight weeks after you spread this april.

The heavy crops would've depleted reserves this year too, I see loads of fields not coming back after heavy crops

whelan2

I think though in alot of cases lads have enough silage made and whatever grows now grows

mr.stonewall

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119446542#Comment_119446542

Could be all used yet. Was thinking today if we have an early winter and late spring we could see fodder moving from west to east this year. A fair bit of feeding of silage happening in drier areas especially with milking cows

Fine Day

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119446949#Comment_119446949

Alot of second cuts have been zero grazed around here on some larger dairy farms. As you said alot of surplus fodder maybe used up quickly.

Danzy

Parts of cork feeding silage for the last month.

Birdnuts

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119447559#Comment_119447559

I see in the UK the gov are already shipping emergency supplies of fodder from Scotland to the south of England such is the severity of the drought there

Grueller

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119447559#Comment_119447559

All of North Wexford at it for the last 3-4 weeks

GrasstoMilk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119447649#Comment_119447649

South of England atm, photo from a friend coming home from Cornwall

Silverdream

South east of England has been hit with drought many times for as long as I know. They now have many Vineyards and produce some really good wines. Not ideal countryside for growing grass silage or even Maize silage as there just isn't the rainfall there anymore

Good loser

Got 6 bales from second cut at weekend. Same field On June 7 yielded 11 per acre.

Second cut got 3 x 18.6.12 incl sulphur, 17 units K and 0.7 urea per acre. Blame the lack of rain.

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119451297#Comment_119451297

Actually there has being plenty of rain. The problem IMO is that last winter was exceptionally dry. We got very little rain. It's actually interesting to go out into a field and look under the trees. The ground is absolutely parched while the grass is growing elsewhere in the field. I have not seen that before

Trees are very dependent on water and normally store a lot of water from the winter over the summer. This year under trees grass is suffering drought while elsewhere the grass is ok. I have not seen that before to such an extent.

Birdnuts

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119451136#Comment_119451136

Large parts of Spain, France and Italy are becoming unviable for a lot of water and chemical hungry intensive farming. Unfortunately this penny has not dropped for many of the big agri lobbyist in the EU like Copa Cogeca who simply want to push business as usual

Grueller

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119451504#Comment_119451504

Depends where you are bass. Over here there has been almost zero rain since June 1st.

DBK1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119451679#Comment_119451679

Yep definitely location dependant. In the midlands here and apart from the rain 2 weekends ago we often had more rain in a day than we had since 1st June.

dohc turbo2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119451504#Comment_119451504

Well that's a good one I spotted that yesterday, a tree I have in one field they all go under for shelter when lashing, and last night there was still water around it on the shade, I'm in Kerry too and the last bit of rain if it didn't stop cattle would be doing damage, ground was starting to turn soft