Cathal Crean

Wexford

The wet start to this spring delayed getting cattle out to grass, but thankfully grass growth is now in full swing. Ground conditions are in good shape despite the rain over last weekend.

I started letting my early calving cows out to grass at the beginning of April. Their calves had access to paddocks via a creep gate in the shed from early March.

I find this a great way to get calves out of the shed and into fresh air. I let the last cows and calves plus yearling heifers out on 14 April.

I turned the bulls out to grass on 10 March and divided them into two groups based on their liveweight. However, I did rehouse the heavier group for roughly 10 days when the weather turned wet in late March.

As a result of the turn-out and with soft ground conditions, I could not graze off my silage ground or spread slurry on it.

I made a call to close it up for silage and dressed it with two bags of 10:10:20, 2.5 bags of CAN and a bag of muriate of potash on 7 April. I hope to harvest silage around 25 May.

I have the three wettest paddocks left to graze on my second rotation, so with the good weather forecast this week, it will provide a good opportunity to graze them out tight.

For the first fertilizer dressing on grazing land, I spread 1.5 bags of 10:10:20 on paddocks with low phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) and one bag of CAN on fields with good P and K levels in early March.

I spread a bag of CAN after the first rotation during Easter. I reseeded a three-acre paddock last week. I sprayed it with glyphosate and Dursban 4 to prevent frit fly attack.

I ploughed, tilled and sowed it with the one-pass drill. It received 1.5t of ground limestone and two bags of 10:10:20. I will spray it with a post-emergence herbicide in six weeks’ time.