The last few dry days have been a very welcome reprieve for a lot of farmers, particularly in western and northern parts of the country.

Slurry has been a major issue this spring, with ground trafficability proving poor up until now.

It is likely the first real opportunity farmers have had in many areas to get some tank space back, so seize the opportunity while it’s there.

Looking at the rainfall for the week ahead, those north of the River Shannon seem to be looking to fare the best, with single-digit rainfall levels over the next few days combining with the longer days and drying breeze really helping ground to dry out.

Grass

As well as getting some slurry out on ground with low grass covers, there may also be an opportunity to get some more grass into diets.

For dairy stock, this may mean switching from on-off grazing to grazing by day.

For beef farmers, grazing paddocks adjacent to the yard and housing cattle by night might not only ease the burden on slurry and silage, but could also ease pressure on housing.

With spring calving well under way for many, getting stock turned out for even a few hours in the day will help reduce disease pressure and may allow for cleaning out and disinfecting of creep areas and calving pens.

Fertiliser

On the fertiliser front, while soil temperatures aren’t anything to write home about just yet, fertiliser spread this time of the year is more use as background N in late March and early April.

If ground conditions are good - in the sense that you aren’t marking ground with machinery - applying 20 units N/acre in the form of protected urea would be a feasible option, provided there is 48 hours of fairly dry weather post-application.

Anywhere that has received or is to receive slurry can be skipped over, as an application of 2,000 to 2,500 gallons/acre should suffice for N requirement for now.