The dry and very settled weather has been a huge relief to everyone. All over the country I see little groups of cows out grazing, grabbing either a few hours or out day and night depending on conditions.

In general, the weather this spring has been pretty normal although some parts of the southwest have received higher than normal rainfall amounts, so we can’t say that land is dry everywhere because it certainly isn’t.

With relatively dry weather in the forecast, thoughts are once again turning to fertiliser as conditions are pretty much ideal in most places.

It is difficult to give blanket fertiliser advice because there are many different circumstances involved, from those at the pin of the collar for allowances, to those that are extensively stocked and need very little chemical nitrogen.

First round

For those spreading nitrogen now for the first time and who have a high demand for grass I would be inclined to go with 40 units N/acre on as much of the farm as possible now.

If fields got slurry in late January or early February I would apply 40 units/acre on these fields now again, but if they got slurry in the last two to three weeks then I would go with 20 units/acre instead.

Second round

For those that spread 20 or 23 units/acre in early February and are thinking of going with nitrogen again, the Teagasc advice is to apply around 28 to 30 units/acre now in March.

However, if there was more allowance available I would be inclined to go a bit stronger than that. The old advice was to go with 40 units/acre in the second round and I felt that there was a good response to this.

Of course that is all well and good, but farmers need to stick to their allowances, which are back by 5% in 2025.

My view is that if nitrogen is front loaded in the spring, then it must be reduced in the second half of the year and I think that there is more scope to do this given the availability of soiled water, slurry and the naturally occurring availability of background nitrogen.

Again, I would be inclined to go with 30 to 40 units/acre on all the farm that can be travelled, even land that got slurry in January or early February.

Many farmers apply slurry on land after grazing and if this was applied in the last two or three weeks then I would reduce the amount of chemical N on that land by about 20 units/acre.

Farmers often ask about spreading on high covers, querying if it is necessary. The advice is to treat these paddocks with a lot of grass the same as the other paddocks.

While they might not require more grass now, they will need nitrogen for a quick recovery after grazing so applying it now makes sense.