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It’s been a fairly cool week across the country, with daytime temperatures hardly rising above 7°C, with wind chill making this feel much closer to 1°C or 2°C.
As a result, soil temperatures are still on the low side and growth will be slow to take off.
Many farmers are weighing up what is best to do with regard to slurry - while ground is trafficable, the utilisation isn’t optimum with this low growth.
Many farmers will remember last year when the weather turned towards the end of February and ground become untrafficable for six weeks or more, leaving tanks of slurry full in yards.
With many farmers keen not to repeat this, it’s a careful balancing act to spread enough slurry as to not leave yourself tight for storage, but also to hold some of this brown gold for when growth does take off.
Grazing
Grazing is happening on many dairy farms, with very little damage being reported.
Much like last year, it is important to graze hard while ground conditions allow, as it is unlikely that we will get uninterrupted grazing between now and the start of the second rotation.
Again, looking back to last year, those that did graze hard reaped the rewards, especially from whipping off heavy covers.
Strip wires should be used to minimise damage while maximising utilisation for both beef and dairy stock.
It will take you a while to calculate how much stock will eat and you will likely over- or under-allocate, but that’s fine.
Over-allocation is probably better, as under-allocating can mean hungry cattle walking paddocks and causing excessive damage.
If cows are only on three-hour grazings post-milking, water is not a concern and they don’t necessarily need access to a trough.
Fertiliser
The period for fertiliser has now been open for over two weeks, but there is little panic in getting fertiliser out with these temperatures.
It’s still no harm to talk to your merchant and look to order some fertiliser for the first round to be ready for when growth does take off.
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