Slurry

The slurry spreading deadline for farmers in Ireland is 31 October, which is next Wednesday. Unlike this time last year, ground conditions are ideal for spreading. With most animals still out grazing there’s no advantage to waiting until the last minute. Farmers in a nitrates derogation are reminded that they should be using low-emission slurry spreaders, such as trailing shoes and dribble bars. With good regrowth on many paddocks that will be getting slurry, these methods are probably the way to go anyway. Remember, soiled water (dairy washings) can be spread all year round. A key message from the soil fertility conference last week was knowing the dry matter content of slurry. The phosphorus and potassium levels in low dry matter slurry are about half that of high dry matter slurry. This is important when basing chemical fertiliser decisions on the value of slurry spread on silage ground next spring. It is a good idea to get a few different slurry samples tested for dry matter. Your local adviser will have a slurry hydrometer – it could be a nice demonstration at a discussion group meeting. Take an agitated slurry sample from the back of the vacuum tank.

Youngstock

Weanling heifers should be weighing about 230kg LWT by the end of October, or about 40% of mature liveweight. It’s been a good back end for youngstock with good grass and good weather. As grass supplies tighten and weather gets colder thrive will reduce. Because the weather has been so good all along, many farmers have got away without feeding meal since summer, but that will probably change now. Remember the key target is to get heifers to 60% of mature liveweight (or around 330kg) by breeding time at the end of April. If they are on target now, that’s a daily liveweight gain of 0.56kg/day from November to May. Liveweight gain over the winter on slats and silage is poor, at around 0.4kg/day on average, so extra meal and early turnout is necessary to hit the targets. However, there’s no need to feed meal to animals above target weight. Overweight heifers are harder to get in calf.

Money

Single farm payments and milk payments have hit bank accounts over the past week. It’s a welcome injection of cash, but in most cases the money won’t be resting in the account for long. Higher feed and tax bills this year will use up a lot of cash. But if there is money available and you’re considering spending it, there could be a 10-15% saving from buying fertiliser now rather than next year. That’s if prices go up, as expected. Other investments might reduce the workload and some of the drudgery next spring. People often give out about the shortage of labour to work on farms, but in many cases labour is only doing a job that better facilities or a machine could do instead. Investments in calf housing, calf feeders, drafting gates, automatic scrapers, handling facilities, extra feed space and more milking units don’t need to cost a fortune, but can save a lot of time. There will be a session on designing a calf shed and handling unit at Dairy Day on 20 November.