Ciaran Bartley - April 2024

This year is turning into a repeat of last spring again for me with ground completely saturated in March and now into April. A disaster is the only way to describe it. So far I have turned 10 yearlings out on my driest ground. I had intended to turn out 66 more yearlings on Easter Monday but the forecast ahead put paid to that.

I have some extremely heavy covers of grass on my driest ground with some exceeding nearly 3000kg DM/ha at this stage. The way things are looking I will be baling up a lot of these covers once ground dries. I don’t see this as a negative as I have a demand for all top quality silage and I know any silage cut in april or into may will be in excess of 75% dmd. It received no nitrogen only 3000 gallons of slurry in late January. With regards silage I have enough in the yard to last me another 3-4 weeks so I won’t be under pressure in that regard. All my bigger stock are just over 1 year old weighing 270-350 kg so I won’t have too many issues with deep poaching that farmers with cows would have. So far the forecast for the next 2 weeks looks to continue largely wet so I will be continuing to feed inside a diet of 100% silage until then. I will continue to monitor the long-range forecast and if I see any improvement on the horizon, I will plan for a fast turnout of the remaining 165 yearlings.

I have no fertilizer spread so far this year as ground conditions do not allow. I am concerned about silage ground being spread late as this will delay cutting and in turn reduce feed quality so I may reduce the amount of chemical nitrogen I apply to 60 units and cut in mid may. I won’t be able to spread any slurry on silage ground so my two options are to go with 60 units protected urea for first cut on its own or else split the application between 10-10-20 and protected urea which I have in the yard and feed the ground with slurry after the first cut.

One thing I have definitely made my mind up on is high stocking rates. There has to be a happy medium level to hit as with the clay soils in east limerick a farmer can become very exposed in an extreme high rainfall year like the one we had. I do not think I will ever target stocking my farm over 170kg organic nitrogen and enter derogation. The risk is too high in a wet year. I have a challenge ahead to replenish my silage stocks, I sold 100 bales earlier in the spring and was of the opinion I would never use up what was left but I now am very lucky to have held onto what I have. Slurry will be a big problem for me in the next 2 weeks. If stock were to remain housed, I may have to spread on my heaviest covers, as it may be the only land that can take a slurry tank. It is not ideal but nothing in the last 18 months has been ideal in terms of farming. Im hoping for a very dry summer. My land needs it to crack the soil open and help with all the damage and compaction done in the summer and autumn of 2023. The hot summer of 2018 worked wonders for my farm and something similar would be welcome in 2024.