Rain has arrived on most farms and hopefully grass growth rates will return to normal or above normal in the coming weeks. The majority of farms in soil moisture deficit areas will continue to supplement heavily because average farm covers are lower than target. Most farms should be in or around a farm cover of 1,000kg/ha today.

The two things that are scarcest most on dairy farms this year is feed and cash. Feed costs on most farms are way higher than normal. We’d be saying this even if there wasn’t a drought because the spring was awful. The summer drought was the perfect storm for a country already short of feed.

The cash situation is probably less of a worry. Most dairy farms are good businesses built on a solid footing. Of course there is room improvement but in the majority of cases, as evidenced by National Farm Survey and profit monitor reports dairy farms are sound businesses.

In a sound business a scarcity of cash is easily fixed. Thankfully, it’s not like 2009 and banks are quite happy to lend money to businesses with short time cash flow problems as a result of the weather.

It makes sense to use this, especially if your own cash reserves have been spent on capital expenditure or growing extra youngstock. The lesson here is to keep a bigger cash reserve or finance growth through lending.

Can you use cash to fix the feed problem? Options are limited in the short term, silage isn’t available but you can buy concentrates.

But what about the medium term? Remember the dire statistic that 90% of soil samples are deficient in either phosphorus, potash or lime. Fixing these issues will grow more grass and shelter your farm from the next fodder shortage.

The best time for potash is the autumn. Spreading one bag/acre of muriate of potash will lift soil fertility by roughly one index. Autumn is also a good opportunity to spread lime as grazing rotations are longer.

If spreading lime, you shouldn’t spread urea or slurry for a few months after. Wait a week or so after spreading slurry before you apply lime.

While phosphorus is also important, it should probably be targeted more in the spring as there is a risk of losses over the winter. But there’s no risk with potash or lime.

Improving soil fertility, while using up cash is an excellent investment and should be considered before drainage and reseeding.

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