Home farm: thinking about spring work

I know it is barely past mid-January but already we are seriously thinking about beginning the spring work.

I was not surprised when Met Éireann reported much lower than average rainfall for the winter so far. Ground is very travelable and even though everywhere is moist from sporadic drizzle, I have never seen ditches so dry at this time of the year.

We are now agitating slurry and will empty as many of the slatted tanks as possible while this weather lasts and the slurry has the maximum effect.

Despite the good ground conditions, I still want to experiment and see how an umbilical system handles the slurry from cattle on a high concentrate diet as it will certainly be stickier and more dense than the normal dairy slurry with an element of parlour and yard washings in it as well as a diet that contains much less concentrates.

Out on the crops, it is still too early to do anything but they have come through the winter well. Plant populations look satisfactory and the slug pellets that I put out on the land following last year’s oilseed rape seem to have controlled the target crops with little infestation or damage on the main cereal crops.

I was interested to hear a long discussion at the Ulster Arable Society’s meeting on wild brome grass. My seed and oats customers are becoming increasingly intolerant of any contamination from this source. In the last few years, we have had to dump the headlands in with the feed at harvest time. While we have in the main confined it to the rows nearest the headlands, this year I am looking at the possibility of using a strimmer in the April period to go around and top the brome plants to prevent seed formation.