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The bulk of first-cut silage will be now be harvested on farms that operate a two cut system.
Once fields have been cleared of first cut, it is important to get fertiliser spread and ground closed up as early as possible for second cut.
This will boost grass yields and help make up any deficit that exists after a lighter than normal first cut. Outlined are five tips to help close off ground for second cut.
Grazing headlands
Many farmers will look to graze headlands after first cut to clean off grass missed by the mower. But don’t leave cattle too long on silage ground.
Give animals two to three days, then move them back to grazing paddocks. Leaving cattle for any longer delays fertiliser applications, pushing harvesting date back towards late summer and early autumn, leaving less time to build covers for autumn grazing.
Leave a gap between slurry and bagged fertiliser
Leave a gap of at least one week from spreading slurry to spreading bagged fertiliser. This reduces nitrate losses, meaning more nitrogen is available for grass uptake.
This means silage ground harvested this week should be ready to close off by next weekend. A seven week growing period from next weekend means silage will be ready to cut around mid-August.
Slurry
A summer application of slurry will a have lower nitrogen content than a spring application, so keep this in mind when topping up with bagged fertiliser.
But it will still provide similar P and K levels. Every 1,000gal/ac of cattle slurry will roughly apply five units/ac of P and 30 units of K.
Top up with bagged fertiliser
For second cut, spread 75 to 80 units/ac of nitrogen in total and around 15 units/ac of P will be needed and 80 units of K.
On soils at index 2 or above, cattle slurry spread at 2,500gal/ac should provide enough P and K. Top up with bagged nitrogen afterwards. At the outlined slurry rate, spreading 2.5bags/ac of CAN would suffice.
Control weeds early
Once regrowth the starts to emerge, target any weeds in the sward with an appropriate herbicide. Hitting weeds early gives a far more effective kill and leaves less chance of stunting grass growth.
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