It’s lovely to see the days getting that bit longer.

The weather hasn’t exactly improved much, but it’s still nice to see it bright at 6 o’clock in the evening. One’s mind starts to turn to the spring and plan for the grazing season.

Thankfully since my change of system, I’m not wintering as many cattle as I used to, which means I’m not under any huge pressure to get slurry out at this time of year.

Which is lucky, because you can barely walk on my land at the minute never mind spread slurry on it.

Anyway, things will dry eventually as they always do and I’ll hopefully get the pipe in to give the whole farm a covering.

Fertiliser

The next thing then will be fertiliser, what type and how much?

Last year the whole farm got 2000 gal of slurry and then was topped up with protected urea and sulphur.

The amount of urea depended on whether the was ground was for silage or grazing.

Grazing got 20 units of N to start and the silage got around 80 units and it worked well, so I think I will probably do the same again this year.

Silage

I’m finding myself in the unusual position of not having a clue how much silage I’ll need to cut this year.

So far, my silage pit hasn’t been opened. Fattening cattle just don’t eat as much silage as suckler cows and for the last two winters my red clover silage has more or less seen me through.

At this point, unless we have a very late spring, I think whatever bales are in the yard may just see me through again.

However, I am basing that assumption on me aiming to have all cattle at grass in mid-April. Which firstly may not happen due to bad weather and secondly definitely won’t happen as I am finishing young bulls that probably won’t be ready until June.

Old thought patterns die hard! I’m not used to having cattle in the shed at that time of year.

Anyway, I will hopefully have some silage made by early May that could be fed by late May or if that turns out not to be the case then the bulls will survive on straw, of which I have plenty.

Clover

I really don’t want to have to open a pit of silage in late March or early April if I can manage it. So, I suppose I’ll just have to sit tight and see what happens.

If my red clover performs as well as it has been, then it combined with some strong paddocks might produce me enough silage.

But of course, my first field sowed is coming into its fourth season, so I would be expecting productivity to be dropping off a bit.

I also intend on doing some reseeding this spring and I’m not sure on what to sow. Should I try some more red clover, or would I end up having too much?

Multi species is another option that I haven’t yet tried. I would definitely give it a go if the payment is still in place. Or do I just go with some good old-fashioned rye grass?

So many questions to answer before April. Sure, it keeps things interesting.

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