Farmer Writes: hoping for a better year than 2012

My eldest daughter turned thirteen last week and those 13 years went by in a blink! It doesn’t seem that long ago that I turned 13 myself.

I can vividly remember visiting my aunt’s house, who was also my godmother, around the time of my birthday and her saying to me, “You’re a teenager now James, this is when you get to do all the crazy stuff!” And my father replying, “Sure he’s doing all that already.”

Anyway, that’s enough reminiscing about my childhood, back to the reason I was talking about my daughter turning 13.

I can remember the day before she was born, myself and my wife strolling around outside Altnagelvin Hospital in t-shirts.

It was probably 13 or 14°C and the sun was beaming. The nurses had said a walk might help things along and a bit of sun would definitely do no harm.

There was some nice weather in the spring of 2012, but anyone who can remember the remainder of the year will know it was one of the wettest years on record.

We’ve already had some nice weather in the spring of 2025, some nice sunshine and definitely some above average temperatures.

After the two years that we’ve just had, I’m really hoping for a nice summer this year and not a repeat of 2012.

The nice weather and good drying conditions have allowed stock to be turned out to grass on many farms.

Although I have no cattle out yet, a lot of the lambs are now gone and grass is starting to come.

Fertiliser

I started spreading some fertiliser last week. It should be no surprise to me, but I inevitably always end up surprised; firstly by the difference in land that received early slurry compared to land that didn’t.

Even in the same field, comparing a slightly wet corner that couldn’t be travelled on three weeks ago and which is now looking fairly sad of itself compared to the rest of the field, which is a nice dark green colour.

And also, comparing reseeded swards to old pastures, both of which got the same treatment with regard to grazing and slurry, but the reseed is probably growing three times as much grass as the old sward.

As I’ve said, there is nothing overly surprising in those comments, but it does always hit home the value of both when you see how well they improve grass performance at this time of year.

I’m spreading around 25 units of protected urea and sulphur on the ground that received slurry, a bag of 18-6-12/ac on the land that hasn’t yet received slurry and around 1.5 bags/ac of 10-10-20 on the red clover.

I think the good weather is to last all week, so hopefully the grass keeps powering on and this year proves better than 2012. And finally, happy 13th birthday Gemma.