With a return to higher temperatures, grass growth has picked up, but it has been a difficult season to date, with total production well behind the seasonal norm.

It is another reminder of the importance of building resilience into your farming system, which in practice probably means not stocking the farm to its limit. Having to rely on concentrate feed to fill a gap in forage supplies, makes little sense, especially on drystock farms.

The other main way to build some resilience into a farming system is to always have a supply of fodder in the yard. After a long winter, many farms came close to running short or had to buy-in silage, and in these scenarios it is worth re-evaluating management this year.

In some cases, it is valid to question whether enough nitrogen fertiliser is actually being spread.

Clover

While farmers are open to the messages around the need to rely more on clover, the practical reality is that it has delivered little so far this year given prevailing cold weather. The plant might perform from this point forward, but around 60% of annual grass growth occurs by 30 June each year, so anyone waiting on clover, has potentially missed out on a significant part of the growing season.

It is also potentially the case that too many farmers are over-estimating the value of their slurry. While it is an important source of phosphorus and especially potassium, N is still required to maximise yield and quality in both grazing and silage swards.

Solutions

The ongoing challenge for the fertiliser industry is to find solutions around lowering the carbon emissions associated with the product.

However, in the meantime, the entire ruminant livestock industry needs to reflect on the current direction of travel whereby fertiliser sales have halved since 2000, yet feed usage continues to increase by around 2% year-on-year.