Storm Imogen was raging while the discussion group was out in a field talking about the weather and ground conditions. Most farmers in the group had, like most people, only managed to get cows out for a couple of grazings so far this spring. Most of the group had some nitrogen out, but only on the driest parts of the farm.

Grass covers within the group are high. The average farm cover is 960kg/ha, so they have lots of grass in the fields ready to be grazed when the weather dries up. Some of the farmers were asking where they were going to put slurry as the lighter grass covers were going to be grazed first, because too much damage would be done by grazing heavy covers when land is wet.

The advice given was to prioritise land for grazing. So dry paddocks with grass covers in or around 1,000kg should be left for grazing as soon as conditions allow. If slurry tanks are full, create space by spreading some of the slurry on the lightest covers that are furthest away from grazing. Then target most of the slurry on land that has been grazed. One farmer was planning to get his contractor in one day a week over the next few weeks to spread slurry on land that was grazed that week.

Because most of the group was behind in getting nitrogen spread, some were wondering if more nitrogen should be spread now as a result. The normal recommendation is to spread 23 units/acre of urea in late January or early February. If nitrogen is not going to be spread for another week or more, then it was felt that there is merit in increasing the rate to be spread.

The target on most farms is to have 70 units/acre of nitrogen spread before 1 April, so at this stage splitting it into two equal applications of 35 units of urea/acre probably makes sense.

Calving

A couple of members of the group were having issues with stillbirths, particularly in first calvers.

The issue appears to be related to an iodine deficiency as supplementing with iodine reduces the incidences but they are still getting higher than normal cases, with about one in 10 calves from first calvers born dead. Some farmers had to assist a lot of the first calvers too. Although the calves were small, the cows weren’t making much of an effort to calve.

The fact that the issues seem to be just related to the first calvers across a number of farms points to a specific nutritional or mineral problem with these animals. Blood samples taken on a few of the farms all pointed to an iodine deficiency.

Cashflow

The host farmer was planning a fairly substantial building project in the farmyard. Some of this work started last year and was paid for out of cashflow. As a result, cash is tight at the moment and the farmer is eating into his overdraft facility earlier than normal.

The group suggested that when seeking finance for the next stage of building work, that extra finance be sought to the value of work that was completed last year out of cashflow, as this should have been funded by a long-term loan.

There was some existing debt on the farm also, and while the term on this debt was due to come to an end in the next two years, the repayments were high and were putting a strain on cash. Some members of the group felt it would be better to re-package the existing and new debt into a new loan over a longer term with lower annual repayments to aid cashflow over the next few years.

Fertiliser

Even though fertiliser has yet to be spread on some of the farms, a discussion was had on formulating a fertiliser plan for the year.

One member of the group had just completed his plan. He is going to spread 240 units of nitrogen, 24.5 units of phosphorus and 74 units of potash per acre.

He is going to spread urea with sulphur for the first two rounds, before spreading two bags per acre of 18:6:12 and switching to 24:2.5:10 with sulphur for the summer.

By knowing the exact quantity of fertiliser he needs each month, he was able to go to his local fertiliser merchants and get quotes on bulk fertiliser spreading.

In terms of prices, some farmers in the group felt it would be better to only buy fertiliser a month or two in advance, as prices are still coming back.