Grass growth for 2024 was consistently below average up until mid-September, when it surpassed all expectations and bombed on. It ended up being the saving grace many needed after such poor silage yields. Many will wish to forget about last year.

Annual tonnage reports are seeing a drop in yield of between 1 and 2 tonne/ha on farms.

Annual tonnage has been falling regardless of weather conditions owing to our reduced fertiliser usage, but the weather difficulties of last year did severely impact growth and utilisation.

It is worth taking note of which paddocks performed the worst last year (and the year before) and try to figure out exactly why this was the case. Was it a lack of nitrogen spread? Are swards just tired and need reseeding? Or is soil fertility the issue.

Soil fertility

Reseeding is often seen as the silver bullet to poor grass yield from a paddock. It should be the last thing that is done when it comes to trying to bring growth up.

Look at your soil sample report and see what paddocks rank lowest on fertility. Often, they will be paddocks the furthest away from the yard, as these tend not to get as much slurry as those close by, while they are often prone to being baled out when the opportunity arises, again because of their distance from the yard.

If you compare soil fertility results and annual tonnage, you will likely see that poor fertility paddocks are growing the least on your farm. There will be outliers, but in general this will ring true. With some slurry going out these days, it is worth making an effort to get some spread on more of these low fertility paddocks before any reseeding begins on them. Perennial swards simply won’t last where there is insufficient P and K in the soil.