Grass is now the priority on the farm, and getting as many cattle to grass as quickly as possible is the target. Slurry was spread on the silage ground back in January, but slatted tanks are starting to fill up again, so I’ll have plenty of slurry to go on the grazing ground once I can get some paddocks grazed.

Yearling and in-calf heifers are at grass the last couple of weeks, with little damage done to the ground. An important lesson to remember with grass: it goes to sleep for winter and needs waking up in the spring. Grazing wakes the grass up.

CAN fertiliser was spread where ground conditions allowed, and with days now getting longer and drier days forecast, the results are starting to show with increased grass growth. Based on the Grass 10 campaign I need to target to grow on average over 12 tonnes of grass dry matter per hectare for the year.

Soil samples

I lifted some soil samples earlier this month for analysis and I am currently waiting on the results to decide on my next round of fertiliser, which will probably include compound fertilisers to correct low phosphorus indices on the farm.

Correcting all the low pH and P indices on the farm is taking time

Lime has been applied to 20 acres of grazing ground at the rate of one tonne per acre. This application is based on previous soil sample results which showed a pH level below the required 6.3.

Correcting all the low pH and P indices on the farm is taking time, but if I target a certain amount of ground each year I will be able to hit the grass growth targets of Grass 10.

I managed to grow on average 11 tonnes per hectare in 2016, so getting up above 12 shouldn’t prove too difficult. It may be more difficult to hit the target of grazing each paddock 10 times during the year, but sure we’ll give it a go.

GLAS actions

The other priority on the farm this spring is completing some further GLAS actions. I’ve committed to planting 200 metres of hedgerow and the Department of Agriculture kindly sent me a text reminding me of this fact.

I’m sure there were many of the 5000 farmers awaiting payment for previous GLAS actions who had some choice words for the phone when this reminder landed by text.

The Y2K or millennium bug springs to mind when thinking about the current GLAS payment issues. Luckily, some clever IT people at the time had the foresight to test their computer systems before the year 2000. Perhaps a little testing of systems by the Department before pressing the button for payment would have been a clever idea.

Farmer writes: spring has arrived

Spring may finally have arrived and with it grass and GLAS actions, writes Trevor Boland.