May 10, 2024 • 35 mins
This week we are joined by David Patterson from AFBI to discuss the latest information from the GrassCheck plots and farms. Robert Patterson from CAFRE, Andrew Dale a dairy farmer from Limavady and John & William Egerton who are Beef & Farmers from Rosslea, County Fermanagh.
Topics discussed include managing the spring surge in growth, first cut silage, stitching in clover and reseeding.
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Episode Transcript
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Jason Rankin (00:09):
Hello, I'm Jason Rankin and welcome to the
GrassCheck podcast brought toyou by AgriSearch.
We are bringing you the latestinformation, insights and
opinion to improve grazingmanagement on your farm.
This week we are joined byDavid Patterson from AFBI,
Robert Patterson from CAFRE,Andrew Dale, a dairy farmer from
(00:30):
Limavady, and John and WilliamEgerton, beef and sheep farmers
from Rosslea in County Fermanagh.
David, Robert, Andrew, John andWilliam many thanks for joining
us.
David.
In the last two weeks we've hadwarmer and slightly drier
conditions.
Has growth responded to thesekinder conditions?
David Patterson (00:49):
Yes, to some extent Growth rates over this
last couple of weeks, infairness, have been below
average.
So I think we're stilltransitioning out of that
previously poor period ofweather, which I think is mostly
down to the soil condition andthat it was heavily saturated on
a lot of farms in most of thecounties around Northern Ireland
(01:10):
.
But I suppose the good news isthat, despite modest below
average growth rates over thislast couple of weeks, the
forecast for the next seven daysat least is to zoom away off,
uh, off the scale, um, way abovethe 10 year seasonal average to
about 100.
So with every plus there's aminus.
(01:32):
And unfortunately the forecastfor cooler temperatures, which
is the critical thing for growthin the seven days beyond that,
well into next week, is forcooler conditions and
unfortunately back down to 50 to60 kilograms of growth.
But the caveat on that tryingto stay positive here, um for
this the seven-day forecast isalways more reliable because
(01:54):
it's hugely hinged onto the metoffice predictions and it can
only get better than that 50 to60 predicted figure for the
following seven days.
Jason Rankin (02:07):
In terms of grass quality.
Obviously the growth is pickingup.
We seem to have a mixed bag interms of grass quality,
improving in some areas butconcerns in others.
Don't you want to outline whatwe've kind of seen in grass
quality so far this year?
David Patterson (02:21):
Okay, yeah, concerns is the key word there.
I have been looking across allof the graphs this last day or
so on plot growths, differentsites and the on farms data
right around the province.
And yeah, um me is more or lesswhere we'd expect it to be.
(02:42):
Metabolizable energy in thegrass it's's hovering in around
11.5 on most of the sites andmost of the plots and that's
good news.
The dry matter is slightlylower than expected for this
time of year.
The water-soluble carbohydrates, the sugars in the grasses,
they are on an upward trajectoryright now but they are a couple
(03:03):
of percentage points lower thanwhere I would expect them to be
at this point of early tomid-May.
But and here's the slightly notgood news crude protein is a
good 3% to 4% lower than itshould be for this stage of the
(03:24):
season and you start to try andunpick that as to what's going
on, because it's showing up onsome of the on-farms figures and
it's certainly showing up inour much more controlled plot
quality samples as well.
So there's a concern there onthe protein level because that's
(03:44):
going to reflect not only inthe in the herbage grazing
quality but also, I expect, insilage crops that have been
harvested recently and couldtell a tale in the analyses that
come through later on in thesummer, but for the here and now
it's considerably below whereit should be.
(04:04):
And to try and explain that isthe follow-up question.
I've been scratching my headabout that and I think it's
probably well, it's likely to beall about nitrogen.
If I go back to our plots justfor a moment, we have fertilized
them as normal.
They have the same grass andthe plots, obviously, as
(04:25):
previous years.
I think what has changed is the, the combination of the recent
weather patterns and conditions,especially rainfall, and it
comes down to the soil and thenitrogen.
Crude protein in the grass isall about nitrogen, whether it
comes from organic slurries,pellet fertilizer or clover
nitrogen or even the collectivesoil nitrogen pool that's down
(04:49):
in the soil itself, so thatnitrogen is coming from all
those various sources.
And I think, well, my pettheory is that the consistently
heavy rainfall that we had overthis last oh, I don't know six
or eight weeks, the spell duringwhich people were applying
slurries when they could andwere applying fertilizer when
(05:10):
they could we might not have gotthe full value out of the N
that has been applied andconverted into protein in the
herbage itself.
So I think we're running a bitlow on nitrogen, is the short
answer.
Jason Rankin (05:27):
Thank you, david.
Moving on to Robert now, robert, hopefully all farms have got
stock out now.
Some farmers are in thesituation where they have lots
of grass in front of them.
Others, who got out slightlyearlier, are maybe now running
tight, although hopefully,obviously the predicted surging
growth will help that.
What are the key steps farmerswill need to take to ensure good
(05:48):
grass quality as we enter themain grazing season?
Robert Patterson (05:52):
Yeah, as you say, jason, it's obviously been
a very difficult start to thegrazing season and there's
several different scenarios outon farm at the minute.
On farm at the minute thetransition from first to second
rotation has been particularlydifficult for a lot of people
because that unhelpful spell ofrainfall last weekend made going
(06:16):
on to any second rotations thathad been damaged the first time
very difficult.
Livestock weren't settled andputting livestock back on the
first rotation grass was verydifficult to.
Getestock weren't settled andputting livestock back on the
first rotation grass was verydifficult to get good residues
on.
To add to that, there werepeople who took maybe surplus
paddocks out about a fortnightago, which coincided with that
(06:36):
coal spill, and maybe thosepaddocks haven't come back just
as they would have hoped.
So there are some people outthere getting into a bit of a
deficit.
The main thing now at this stage, going into this main part of
the grazing season, is trying tokeep on top of quality as we
enter the period of the seasonwhere the grass plant tries to
(06:59):
reproduce and go to seed.
So at the minute it's all aboutresiduals and targeting good
residuals where possible.
With weather like we have today, that's not as big an issue.
But if we are still trying toget through those first rotation
products, it is still quitedifficult.
So, looking at the optionsthere, we could look at
(07:20):
pre-mowing the caveat withpre-mowing is that it probably
will reduce your growth in thesubsequent couple of weeks after
that and then sort of targetingthose paddocks that were badly
dirtied or had a really poorresidual in the previous
rotation and trying to earmarkthem for taking out as a surplus
if there is a surplus existing.
Earmark them for taking out asa surplus if there is a surplus
(07:44):
existing.
Jason Rankin (07:45):
Thanks, robert.
A lot of silage is being cut atthe present time.
What are the key steps forfarmers to take to ensure good
quality silage and avoid soilcontamination?
Robert Patterson (07:55):
Yeah, it's a fantastic time to try and get
some good quality grassharvested there at the minute.
As we well know, fieldoperations haven't been
straightforward for this pastnine months and there are plenty
of fields out there with wetspots where there aren't usually
wet spots, and there are rutsfrom story applications and
(08:15):
fertilizer applications andgrazing, whatever it may be.
So it's just keeping an eye onsoil contamination and just
practical things like looking atthe heights of moors and the
heights of tedders and rakes andjust trying to minimize the
amount of soil coming back intothe clamp or the bale there, and
(08:36):
also for slurry applications.
If slurry has gone on fairlylate in the season, you know,
just being mindful that you'renot setting the rake down too
low and you're bringing a lot ofthat sort of dry material back
in.
Okay, thank you, robert.
Jason Rankin (08:49):
Andrew.
Turning to you now, how has thegrazing season gone for you so
far, and how have you managed?
Andrew Dale (08:56):
Afternoon, jason.
Well, it'll not take me toolong to summarise the grazing
season so far on this farm, inthat it only started on Monday.
The grazing season so far onthis farm, in that it only
started on Monday, but basicallya wee bit of an outline of the
system here 120 milking cows,crossbred cows, viking, red
Viking, holstein, and thehistory of the herd would be
more fleck-feed crossbred.
(09:17):
So we have quite big cows whoare sprinkling a bit of Jersey
in there as well, just to reducethe overall cow size.
So the farm itself is about 300acres acres.
We grow about 60 acres of wholecrop.
So in terms of the grazingplatform here, uh, we're very uh
restricted.
We've only 35 acres availablefor grazing.
So if you work that out, 120cows, so we're 35 acres.
(09:40):
It's about eight cows to thehectare or something.
So we then to try and bring inextra grazing area, we zero
graze.
So we have been zero grazingsince late april uh, sort of the
20th of april there, on and offjust whenever we could, and we
were all set to start thegrazing rotation, uh, last week,
but basically it rained herenearly every day last week, uh,
(10:02):
pretty heavy some of the days.
So basically we kept nippingaway at the zero grazing when we
could on the drier fields andwe actually nipped off a few of
the grazing fields as well, justbecause they were getting
covers of three and a half orfour thousand.
So a combination of high coversand poor ground conditions
weren't going to be ideal forturning cows out, so we just
(10:24):
nipped it off with a zero grazerand kept the cows in.
But we've got the cows out nowsince Monday by day, out full
time since Wednesday, and we'renow starting to transition them
on.
There's still a wee bit ofwhole crop oats that they're
getting there during milking,but that'll be cut out now over
the next day or two and bringingthem down from currently five
kilos a meal down to two orthree kilos just depends on how
(10:46):
unsettled maybe the weatherturns next week.
But the idea would be to getthem onto a full grass diet out
day and night and also then zerograze some grass then during
milking time just to make surethey're full of grass from next
week.
But it's been a crazy from nextweek.
So that's the, but it's been acrazy, crazy, crazy spring here,
if you want to call it a spring.
(11:08):
But we have just to summarisethis week, which emphasises how
crazy it has been really to.
Yesterday evening we mowed someof our drier part of the farm,
which got slurry in the middleof February and got topped up
with fertil fertilizer in themiddle of March, which would be
the target for silage growing.
(11:29):
So it was mowed last night andgoing to put in silage tomorrow.
But also yesterday the wetterparts of the farm got the very
first fertilizer of the year.
We tried two or three times toget slurry onto it but it was
always too wet and I still wasdriving through puddles
yesterday to get theurry onto it, but it was always too wet and
I still was driving throughpuddles yesterday to get the
fertilizer onto it.
So that's in itself going to bea bit of a challenge.
Moving forward into it, whereobviously the first block of
(11:52):
silage ground has been cut now,10 days time there'll be another
block cut and then that latestuff that's only just received
fertilizer.
It'll probably not be ready forcutting to the end of May, so
we'll just see what grassquality is like.
I would imagine it'll start tothrow seed head, regardless of
whether it's six inches tall ora foot and a half tall.
(12:12):
So we'll just see it might endup.
It's not a big area so it mightend up going to be a lot for
dry cow feed or something, butit's just been a challenge.
And on top of that we arecurrently trying to sow some
spring oats into ground that wasploughed in the middle of
September for winter wheat.
So that sort of summarizes justwhere the struggles have been
(12:36):
over the last sort of seven,eight months on this particular
area.
And in terms of growth, just toback up what David was saying,
we measure weekly here.
So growth rates were 30, 40kilos maximum throughout April
there, combination, I suppose,of cold, wet soils and plus
disjointed fertilizerapplications.
(12:56):
But measured it at the start ofthe week there and we were
getting 63.
And with the heat that we'vehad in the last few days I would
imagine we'll be recording agrowth of 80 plus now at the
weekend in a couple of days,whenever we measure again.
So growth has at last startedto take off and we'll just
monitor pre-grazing heights orwhatever.
(13:17):
We're sitting at low 3,000sthere at the minute and we're
out full time.
So if we've got enough grass inthe grazing platform we'll even
skip rounds, because you couldskip around in 18 days.
So we'll be, rather than splita field into four, we just split
it into three and keep them.
Keep them moving, but also tryand hit the residuals if we can,
(13:37):
and if covers get a bit high,we'll skip a field, we'll zero
graze it or we'll bail it orsomething, because we're going
to be cutting silage on and offsort of every 10 days now for
the next few weeks anyway.
So that's the way we'llhopefully control it and get
everything back into some sortof shape again.
Uh, there's a lot of slurrystill in store that we weren't
able to get out in the spring.
So again we'll be.
(13:57):
We have a lessy tanker now withtrail and shoe, so we'll try
and apply some of it, maybe whenwe can after the cows, or
definitely after the zero grazer, and make use of it.
Try and reduce our boughtfertiliser requirements if we
can now, and that kind ofsummarises where we're at at the
(14:17):
minute.
Jason Rankin (14:19):
Thank you, andrew.
As you say, a very challengingyear all around, particularly
for those of you in wetter partsof the country.
John, william, coming on now toyou and how things have gone
for you, obviously we're goingto split in this farm because
John, you look after mainly thebeef cattle and William the
sheep.
So, john, do you want to startfrom the beef end of things as
(14:40):
to how things have gone for youthis year?
Start from the beef end ofthings as to how things have
gone for you this year.
John Egerton (14:45):
Yeah, thanks, Jason.
Yeah, it has been a difficultyear.
Most years are difficult here.
Anyway, We've had cattle outfrom early April, out and in and
doing the hokey-cokey andmoving around and doing damage.
We were lucky we got out earlywith slurry and we got out early
(15:09):
with fertilizer and the grassgrowth has been reasonable here
even with the wet conditions.
I was happy enough with thegrass growth.
The biggest problem wasutilization and leaving heavier
residuals than I would haveliked, doing a bit of damage.
We started about two weeks agotaking paddocks out, which has
(15:31):
worked very well.
We've cut paddocks off andwe've got those slurried and
they're coming again.
Well, Our growth last week wasactually 75, but our growth
never got down below about 40anyway.
So we were happy enough.
All cattle have been out nowfor about two weeks and the
(15:52):
issue is that some of them havebeen going into covers of three
to four thousand and a productthat should have lasted them
three days hasn't lasted themtwo days, Even after a day and a
half.
They've been looking for achange and tramping about.
The issue now will be thosepaddocks the next time around.
By right, those should be cutthe next time around, but
(16:18):
there's a bit of surface damageand there's a bit of dirt on the
grass, it wouldn't make verygood quality sedage.
So we're in a difficultsituation there.
This last few days it hasimproved.
Utilisation has definitelymassively improved.
We're almost around the firstrotation.
The last three paddocks of thefirst rotation I actually cut
them this morning, so we'll bemoving.
(16:40):
Tomorrow we'll be moving intothe second rotation, which
should help improve the thing.
The paddocks that were cut acouple of weeks ago have came
well and are ready for grazingagain now, even though it's only
two weeks.
Hopefully there's not going tocome too much rain.
My graph hasn't been thatpleasant to look at.
(17:01):
Recently it's just been showinga massive surplus, even though
realistically I hadn't a lot ofsurplus.
But hopefully next week, withcutting out these paddocks, the
graph will be more where I wantit to be.
Jason Rankin (17:17):
Thank you, William .
How are things going on thesheep end of the farm?
William Egerton (17:22):
Yeah, thanks, euston.
Like everyone else said, it hasbeen a very challenging spring.
Getting ewes and lambs turnedout early on in middle of March
was very difficult.
Ground was saturated, younglambs that don't survive well
out in the rain and they don'tsurvive well out in the rain.
And grass growth, as my fathersays, has sort of been alright
(17:46):
here.
Utilisation was tough going.
Some fields did get too wet tobe grazed at all and when they
did eventually dry up they werecut sort of towards the end,
middle of April, and I havenoticed that they were a wee bit
slower to come back again, justwith the cold weather.
(18:07):
But thankfully now the heat hascame, the sun has came out and
I should be doing okay for grass.
I'm going to be expecting grassto be up high 80s, high 90s
this week for growth.
Jason Rankin (18:20):
Joe William, what are your plans?
What are you likely to becutting silage on your farm?
Have you closed up anything?
Cutting silage on your farm?
Have you closed?
John Egerton (18:26):
up anything for silage at the present time.
Yeah, the silage ground onlygot applications to fertiliser
about three weeks ago, so it'sprobably another two weeks out
yet.
We hoped in the meantime to becutting away products almost
every week.
We normally aim for the lastweek in May and it's looking
(18:48):
like that's when it's going tobe this year.
It's bulking up fairly well now.
There's some of the waterground that didn't get slurry,
is a bit hungry looking and it'sprobably going to run the seed
head and it's not going to be asgood a quality, but hopefully
it will improve.
Someone said there about theprotein in the air samples.
(19:09):
So far the protein have beenreasonable.
I haven't had any issue withthe protein.
I'm not sure whether that's thefact that we got out early with
urea and slurry.
Maybe that has helped theprotein.
But the protein and air sampleshave been reasonable so far.
Jason Rankin (19:26):
Robert, we're now entering an ideal time of year
for overseeding clover.
What are the key steps to taketo maximise the chance of
successful stitching in ofclover?
Robert Patterson (19:37):
Yeah, as I say , jason, it's coming into the
ideal time.
Perhaps usually in a normalyear it would have been a
fortnight ago, but in terms ofsoil moisture and soil
temperature and daylight hours,those are the three things we
need to think about and we'vegot all those things at the
minute.
So if we're thinking aboutoverseeding, traditionally it
(19:59):
would be a white clover varietyand hopefully you'll have some
idea of paddock selection beforethis point.
But in terms of paddockselection, you'd be thinking
about the soil nutrient statusof the paddocks.
So ideally 2 plus for p and kand and above 6.3 for ph.
The prevalence of weeds in thepaddock is a consideration as
(20:23):
well, because there's limitedways to control the weeds when
the clover comes through.
So ideally a cleaner sward,looking at the sward in terms of
the proportion of sown speciescurrently in the sward and if
you're going to be happy withthat sward, say for the next
five or six years, if you get agood hit of clover in terms of
(20:43):
perennial ryegrass in it andalso the sward density.
So the denser the sward, themore difficult.
Overseeding clover is trying toget it established and I
suppose then getting a sown,getting plenty of soil contact,
probably using an ironbuck,scratch the surface a couple of
times and then really it's aboutgrazing management thereafter.
(21:07):
So trying to graze it atshorter grazing rotations, sort
of 18 days.
Lower pre-grazing covers 26 to2800 kilos of dry matter to the
hectare and reducing thenitrogen going on to those
paddocks.
So ideally no nitrogen, sort ofa month before establishment,
(21:28):
no nitrogen when it's sown andafter the second grazing post
sowing, then maybe going on witha half rate of nitrogen, sort
of 15 kilos to the hectare ifyou need the grass growth there,
all in an aim to try and reducethe competition from the grass
plants there and give the cloveras much of a fighting chance as
(21:52):
possible and getting as muchlight into the base of the sward
.
So a really quick turnaroundwith the overseeding.
You can be back in theregrazing in two or three weeks
time, the overseeding, and youknow you can be back in there
grazing in two or three weekstime if you're able to get in
and get the seed sown as soon asthe paddock is grazed or mown,
(22:12):
or whatever the case may be.
The full swardry seed is stillan option at this time of year
and it's probably a belt andbraces approach, but it's you
know you're probably going tohave a greater chance of a good
establishment.
But you're probably looking athave a greater chance of a good
establishment, but you'reprobably looking at this time of
year of being out of thatpaddock for eight to 10 weeks.
So it's just what that?
What implications that willhave on your stocking rate and
(22:35):
your demand at this time of year.
David Patterson (22:37):
I was just going to add, robert has given a
really good coverage there.
Robert has given a really goodcoverage there.
We were oversowing yesterday,actually last night, at
Hillsborough here with it's alittle bit different.
It was pure plantain seed thatwe were stitching into a
ryegrass sward.
It's part of the DERA-fundedplantain grazing study, just for
(23:01):
context.
But the point is what I didnotice, and even looking around
the grass check bulletin forthis week, soil moisture right
around the country on the sitesthat we test has come up closer
to field capacity and I think,even looking at that soil last
night, soil is in the perfectcondition right now for
(23:22):
overseeding because it is notcrumbly, it's not too hard at
the surface and it's almost, Iwould call it, at the plasticine
stage.
It has, uh, the, the watertable finally has got a little
bit lower down the soil profileand that plastic nature of the,
the very surface soil.
It was allowing the first twopasses of the empty iron block,
(23:44):
as I call it.
The first two passes were justscoring into it nicely and then
the third pass was dropping theseed in.
So it's perfect timing from asoil surface condition point of
view.
A coulter or a tine or any sortof, whatever machine it is,
whatever's cutting into thesurface, it's just allowing that
(24:05):
nice little groove to go in anddrop the seed in.
So it's really good timingright now.
And also just to re-emphasizeRobert's other point, the
aftercare is nearly as important, if not more important, and
what we're intending to do thisis an experimental paddock, if
you like, but we're going to goin and cut it probably as much
(24:26):
as every 10 days just to keepthe grass competition back.
A ryegrass regrowth after alight silage cut, heavy grazing
cover, whatever it may be, ishugely competitive and it's
amazing how quickly thoseryegrass tillers just close over
and a little tiny seedling thesize of your, your wee finger,
(24:47):
neil, is, is trying hard tocompete.
Whether it's a clover seedlingor a plantain doesn't matter, um
, they're having a huge job todo and that's why I think a lot
of overseeding has not beensuccessful in the past.
We haven't kept the grasscompetition back.
Jason Rankin (25:04):
Andrew, have you been taking any steps to
establish clover on your farm?
Andrew Dale (25:10):
We have.
If you walked my fields youwould think that I haven't, but
I've been doing a lot of thework that Robert basically
summarized there at the start ofhis talk.
There's no point of buyingclover seed if the soil P and
K's and P, h's and weed controlisn't right.
So over the last two, threeyears we've been working hard at
(25:30):
trying to get all those ducksin a row, if you like, and
really the farm is, I think, ina pretty good place now to try
and make include cloversuccessfully.
The other thing if you remember, I highlighted the fact we have
quite a tight grazing platformhere.
So again, we were feeding ithard with nitrogen in the past
(25:54):
because we were restricted inarea.
But because of the zero grazingand the flexibility it gives us
, now we're not just pushing thenitrogen as hard.
So again, because basically youcan do all the hard work you
like about clover, but if youbasically flood the thing with
nitrogen then the grass is justgoing to out-compete it.
So I think all the system, theoverall system, is much more
(26:18):
inviting if you like to makeclover a success.
So definitely this year weintend there's a local
contractor has got one of thesestitching in machines.
So definitely, we intend toactually, as we get round, sort
of over the next 10 days, I'llbe hopefully trying to do a bit.
Especially, as the guys haveall said there, soil conditions
(26:38):
are almost ideal at the minutefor it.
So we'll try and do a bit andsee how we get on.
Again, whenever we do a fullreseed, in the past we would
have always have used a bit ofclover.
I reseeded a big area a coupleof years ago actually, and weed
control was an issue in thefield.
So we we just sold it straightwith grass and we've got the
weeds under control now.
(26:58):
So I intend now this year totry and stitch a bit.
It was a hybrid grass actually,so it's quite open and it's now
in its second year.
So again, we'll probably go inand try and stitch in a wee bit
of more hybrid and a wee bit ofclover.
This time just through it.
It doesn't need ploughed around.
So we'll just try and renovateit, rejuvenate it that way and
hopefully get another two, threeyears out of it, but with the
(27:20):
clover this time.
Now we've got the weeds undercontrol.
So I'd also be very keen onmaybe red clover.
But again, the flexibility onthis farm is key and obviously,
at my time at Hillsborough I hadplenty of experience with red
clover and, yes, it's awonderful crop.
(27:41):
It can grow in fresh air, butyou need to have the right
weather window for that 24 48hours whenever you it's ready
for cutting and, unlike grass,it is such a small window.
Whenever it's ready it needscut and if that happens to be
two wet days, then you'reunfortunately it'll be very
difficult to make anythingthat's palatable at all for
(28:03):
livestock.
So, again it's it's somethingthat I am thinking of dabbling
with.
Uh, but my issue is that thethe best site I have for it in
terms of growing, the type ofground.
It's a 40 acre block, so it'sit's sort of go big or go home
type thing.
It's either.
To do half of it's only anuisance, so I don't know.
(28:26):
It's still because, again, yes,you can reduce your inputs, but
you've got to end up withsomething that you can feed to
livestock at the end of it, andI've threw out too many bad
black bales from my time atHillsborough to know that that's
not what conducive at all.
So we'll just have to see.
But no, the red clover thing isdefinitely something that I
(28:49):
would be keen to dabble with.
I think going forward, butdefinitely white clover across
the farm is something that, as astarting point, we're hoping to
go on that journey this yearfor sure.
Jason Rankin (29:01):
Thank you, andrew.
John William, have you beentaking any steps to establish
clover?
John Egerton (29:07):
Yeah, well, I'll maybe start here, but we have
been establishing clover for thelast two years that white
clover, and everything Robertsays is exactly right.
The big issue we have is afterthe 18 days when you're ready to
graze it.
Quite often it's wet and whenyou go in and graze that young
clover plant and it's wet,you're cramping the ground and
(29:29):
you're damaging the clover andit's difficult to get it
established in those conditions.
Then if you wait to the dryconditions, the clover smothered
out.
So it has worked well in someareas and in other areas it has
been difficult to establish.
We usually found that June wasactually the best month of the
(29:51):
year to establish the trover andthat's probably because ground
conditions are usually betterand it's easier to get back in
in those 18 days and graze itoff and give it a chance days
and graze it off and give it achance.
Usually in May the weather canbe changeable and to come back
in wet conditions it has beendifficult.
William has been establishingit in the sheep ground as well
(30:15):
and he's had difficulties, butI'll let him say that himself.
William Egerton (30:19):
A couple of years ago I stitched in quite a
bit of clover on the sheepground.
I maybe took on a wee bit toomuch than what I should have, as
I wasn't fit to graze some ofit off in time and it did get
smothered out.
Another issue with the sheepend is sheep would tend to
thicken grass out a lot and itis getting that soil contact and
(30:41):
getting the light down in.
Even when it is grazed off, thegrass can be very dense of
itself.
Some paddocks work well andothers not so well, and then
that wet winter I'll questionhow much of the clover has
actually survived through thewinter.
Jason Rankin (31:00):
David, for those farmers looking to do a full
reseed, obviously we've norecommended list in R Ireland
anymore, but what are the keythings they should be looking
for when selecting a grass seedmix?
David Patterson (31:10):
Yeah, I'll be as brief as possible.
It's a big subject.
You should probably still lookfor recommended list varieties.
There are other lists availablein the South and there's the
Scottish available in the south.
There's the Scottish list, theAHDB list, so you can still
(31:33):
check out if the varieties thatare available, perhaps through
local merchants or seed houses,to make sure they are actually
recommended on a list.
After that you're trying topick off the top of those lists.
Obviously, if it's a silage typesward, it's trying to match the
heading out dates of thevarieties with the likely time
(31:54):
that you take first cut or yourexpected sort of week when you
normally are able to achievefirst cut silage.
I think that's a critical pointto watch those heading out
dates achieve first cut silage.
I think that's a critical pointto watch those heading out
dates.
For a grazing type scenarioit's maybe a case of with or
(32:16):
without clover for a start off.
If it's with clover, it's maybedoubling the seed rate in a
mixture.
If it's a 12 to 14 kilo mixturerather than one or one and a
half, it's maybe three kilogramsof white clover going into that
full mixture, um and andwatching the varieties there as
well.
In that you want um williamwill maybe shoot me about this,
(32:37):
but it's it's wanting, uhdesiring, to put some more open
growing varieties and speciesfor that matter, you know it's
timothy as well as perennialryegrass and, on the ryegrass
varieties, having the slightlylater heading, more open types
such as the tetraploids.
So upping the proportion ofthose and again back to basics
(33:00):
mixtures shouldn't becomplicated.
Two to three grass varieties isreally all you need.
And if we're talking about amore extensive area yes, it's
about clover, but also lookingat those other grass species, if
you have a particularly dryfield, that whenever there's a
two week period in the summerwithout rain the field's going
(33:21):
brown or something as extreme asthat, you should be looking to
deeper rooting grasses,festoololium, tall fescue and
even cocksfoot.
Some of the more palatable,more digestible varieties of
cocksfoot are available On thesilage front.
We took silage off here atHillsborough off most of the
first cut area this week.
Conditions were good.
(33:43):
But the point is, when welooked at some of the more
advanced tillers the growingpoint still hadn't emerged.
It was probably aboutfour-fifths of the way up
through its travel and that wason the mature big tillers that
you lift out of the sward.
So it should be for thosepeople that are cutting now or
(34:04):
very recently or about to.
I think the quality level inryegrass should be pretty good
at the moment.
Jason Rankin (34:12):
That's it for this episode of the Grass Check
Podcast, and my thanks to DavidPatterson from AFBI, robert
Patterson from CAFRI, andrewDale and John and William
Edgerton for joining us.
Don't forget to rate, reviewand subscribe to this podcast.
You can listen on Apple, amazonand Google Podcasts, as well as
Spotify.
For more information, you cango to the Grass Check website
(34:36):
wwwagri-searchorg.
Slash.
Grasscheck and Grass Checksocial media channels.
I'm Jason Rankin and join usthe next time for the Grass
Check podcast.
Until then, stay safe.
Hello, I'm Jason Rankin and welcome to the
GrassCheck podcast brought toyou by AgriSearch.
We are bringing you the latestinformation, insights and
opinion to improve grazingmanagement on your farm.
This week we are joined byDavid Patterson from AFBI,
Robert Patterson from CAFRE,Andrew Dale, a dairy farmer from
(00:30):
Limavady, and John and WilliamEgerton, beef and sheep farmers
from Rosslea in County Fermanagh.
David, Robert, Andrew, John andWilliam many thanks for joining
us.
David.
In the last two weeks we've hadwarmer and slightly drier
conditions.
Has growth responded to thesekinder conditions?
David Patterson (00:49):
Yes, to some extent Growth rates over this
last couple of weeks, infairness, have been below
average.
So I think we're stilltransitioning out of that
previously poor period ofweather, which I think is mostly
down to the soil condition andthat it was heavily saturated on
a lot of farms in most of thecounties around Northern Ireland
(01:10):
.
But I suppose the good news isthat, despite modest below
average growth rates over thislast couple of weeks, the
forecast for the next seven daysat least is to zoom away off,
uh, off the scale, um, way abovethe 10 year seasonal average to
about 100.
So with every plus there's aminus.
(01:32):
And unfortunately the forecastfor cooler temperatures, which
is the critical thing for growthin the seven days beyond that,
well into next week, is forcooler conditions and
unfortunately back down to 50 to60 kilograms of growth.
But the caveat on that tryingto stay positive here, um for
this the seven-day forecast isalways more reliable because
(01:54):
it's hugely hinged onto the metoffice predictions and it can
only get better than that 50 to60 predicted figure for the
following seven days.
Jason Rankin (02:07):
In terms of grass quality.
Obviously the growth is pickingup.
We seem to have a mixed bag interms of grass quality,
improving in some areas butconcerns in others.
Don't you want to outline whatwe've kind of seen in grass
quality so far this year?
David Patterson (02:21):
Okay, yeah, concerns is the key word there.
I have been looking across allof the graphs this last day or
so on plot growths, differentsites and the on farms data
right around the province.
And yeah, um me is more or lesswhere we'd expect it to be.
(02:42):
Metabolizable energy in thegrass it's's hovering in around
11.5 on most of the sites andmost of the plots and that's
good news.
The dry matter is slightlylower than expected for this
time of year.
The water-soluble carbohydrates, the sugars in the grasses,
they are on an upward trajectoryright now but they are a couple
(03:03):
of percentage points lower thanwhere I would expect them to be
at this point of early tomid-May.
But and here's the slightly notgood news crude protein is a
good 3% to 4% lower than itshould be for this stage of the
(03:24):
season and you start to try andunpick that as to what's going
on, because it's showing up onsome of the on-farms figures and
it's certainly showing up inour much more controlled plot
quality samples as well.
So there's a concern there onthe protein level because that's
(03:44):
going to reflect not only inthe in the herbage grazing
quality but also, I expect, insilage crops that have been
harvested recently and couldtell a tale in the analyses that
come through later on in thesummer, but for the here and now
it's considerably below whereit should be.
(04:04):
And to try and explain that isthe follow-up question.
I've been scratching my headabout that and I think it's
probably well, it's likely to beall about nitrogen.
If I go back to our plots justfor a moment, we have fertilized
them as normal.
They have the same grass andthe plots, obviously, as
(04:25):
previous years.
I think what has changed is the, the combination of the recent
weather patterns and conditions,especially rainfall, and it
comes down to the soil and thenitrogen.
Crude protein in the grass isall about nitrogen, whether it
comes from organic slurries,pellet fertilizer or clover
nitrogen or even the collectivesoil nitrogen pool that's down
(04:49):
in the soil itself, so thatnitrogen is coming from all
those various sources.
And I think, well, my pettheory is that the consistently
heavy rainfall that we had overthis last oh, I don't know six
or eight weeks, the spell duringwhich people were applying
slurries when they could andwere applying fertilizer when
(05:10):
they could we might not have gotthe full value out of the N
that has been applied andconverted into protein in the
herbage itself.
So I think we're running a bitlow on nitrogen, is the short
answer.
Jason Rankin (05:27):
Thank you, david.
Moving on to Robert now, robert, hopefully all farms have got
stock out now.
Some farmers are in thesituation where they have lots
of grass in front of them.
Others, who got out slightlyearlier, are maybe now running
tight, although hopefully,obviously the predicted surging
growth will help that.
What are the key steps farmerswill need to take to ensure good
(05:48):
grass quality as we enter themain grazing season?
Robert Patterson (05:52):
Yeah, as you say, jason, it's obviously been
a very difficult start to thegrazing season and there's
several different scenarios outon farm at the minute.
On farm at the minute thetransition from first to second
rotation has been particularlydifficult for a lot of people
because that unhelpful spell ofrainfall last weekend made going
(06:16):
on to any second rotations thathad been damaged the first time
very difficult.
Livestock weren't settled andputting livestock back on the
first rotation grass was verydifficult to.
Getestock weren't settled andputting livestock back on the
first rotation grass was verydifficult to get good residues
on.
To add to that, there werepeople who took maybe surplus
paddocks out about a fortnightago, which coincided with that
(06:36):
coal spill, and maybe thosepaddocks haven't come back just
as they would have hoped.
So there are some people outthere getting into a bit of a
deficit.
The main thing now at this stage, going into this main part of
the grazing season, is trying tokeep on top of quality as we
enter the period of the seasonwhere the grass plant tries to
(06:59):
reproduce and go to seed.
So at the minute it's all aboutresiduals and targeting good
residuals where possible.
With weather like we have today, that's not as big an issue.
But if we are still trying toget through those first rotation
products, it is still quitedifficult.
So, looking at the optionsthere, we could look at
(07:20):
pre-mowing the caveat withpre-mowing is that it probably
will reduce your growth in thesubsequent couple of weeks after
that and then sort of targetingthose paddocks that were badly
dirtied or had a really poorresidual in the previous
rotation and trying to earmarkthem for taking out as a surplus
if there is a surplus existing.
Earmark them for taking out asa surplus if there is a surplus
(07:44):
existing.
Jason Rankin (07:45):
Thanks, robert.
A lot of silage is being cut atthe present time.
What are the key steps forfarmers to take to ensure good
quality silage and avoid soilcontamination?
Robert Patterson (07:55):
Yeah, it's a fantastic time to try and get
some good quality grassharvested there at the minute.
As we well know, fieldoperations haven't been
straightforward for this pastnine months and there are plenty
of fields out there with wetspots where there aren't usually
wet spots, and there are rutsfrom story applications and
(08:15):
fertilizer applications andgrazing, whatever it may be.
So it's just keeping an eye onsoil contamination and just
practical things like looking atthe heights of moors and the
heights of tedders and rakes andjust trying to minimize the
amount of soil coming back intothe clamp or the bale there, and
(08:36):
also for slurry applications.
If slurry has gone on fairlylate in the season, you know,
just being mindful that you'renot setting the rake down too
low and you're bringing a lot ofthat sort of dry material back
in.
Okay, thank you, robert.
Jason Rankin (08:49):
Andrew.
Turning to you now, how has thegrazing season gone for you so
far, and how have you managed?
Andrew Dale (08:56):
Afternoon, jason.
Well, it'll not take me toolong to summarise the grazing
season so far on this farm, inthat it only started on Monday.
The grazing season so far onthis farm, in that it only
started on Monday, but basicallya wee bit of an outline of the
system here 120 milking cows,crossbred cows, viking, red
Viking, holstein, and thehistory of the herd would be
more fleck-feed crossbred.
(09:17):
So we have quite big cows whoare sprinkling a bit of Jersey
in there as well, just to reducethe overall cow size.
So the farm itself is about 300acres acres.
We grow about 60 acres of wholecrop.
So in terms of the grazingplatform here, uh, we're very uh
restricted.
We've only 35 acres availablefor grazing.
So if you work that out, 120cows, so we're 35 acres.
(09:40):
It's about eight cows to thehectare or something.
So we then to try and bring inextra grazing area, we zero
graze.
So we have been zero grazingsince late april uh, sort of the
20th of april there, on and offjust whenever we could, and we
were all set to start thegrazing rotation, uh, last week,
but basically it rained herenearly every day last week, uh,
(10:02):
pretty heavy some of the days.
So basically we kept nippingaway at the zero grazing when we
could on the drier fields andwe actually nipped off a few of
the grazing fields as well, justbecause they were getting
covers of three and a half orfour thousand.
So a combination of high coversand poor ground conditions
weren't going to be ideal forturning cows out, so we just
(10:24):
nipped it off with a zero grazerand kept the cows in.
But we've got the cows out nowsince Monday by day, out full
time since Wednesday, and we'renow starting to transition them
on.
There's still a wee bit ofwhole crop oats that they're
getting there during milking,but that'll be cut out now over
the next day or two and bringingthem down from currently five
kilos a meal down to two orthree kilos just depends on how
(10:46):
unsettled maybe the weatherturns next week.
But the idea would be to getthem onto a full grass diet out
day and night and also then zerograze some grass then during
milking time just to make surethey're full of grass from next
week.
But it's been a crazy from nextweek.
So that's the, but it's been acrazy, crazy, crazy spring here,
if you want to call it a spring.
(11:08):
But we have just to summarisethis week, which emphasises how
crazy it has been really to.
Yesterday evening we mowed someof our drier part of the farm,
which got slurry in the middleof February and got topped up
with fertil fertilizer in themiddle of March, which would be
the target for silage growing.
(11:29):
So it was mowed last night andgoing to put in silage tomorrow.
But also yesterday the wetterparts of the farm got the very
first fertilizer of the year.
We tried two or three times toget slurry onto it but it was
always too wet and I still wasdriving through puddles
yesterday to get theurry onto it, but it was always too wet and
I still was driving throughpuddles yesterday to get the
fertilizer onto it.
So that's in itself going to bea bit of a challenge.
Moving forward into it, whereobviously the first block of
(11:52):
silage ground has been cut now,10 days time there'll be another
block cut and then that latestuff that's only just received
fertilizer.
It'll probably not be ready forcutting to the end of May, so
we'll just see what grassquality is like.
I would imagine it'll start tothrow seed head, regardless of
whether it's six inches tall ora foot and a half tall.
(12:12):
So we'll just see it might endup.
It's not a big area so it mightend up going to be a lot for
dry cow feed or something, butit's just been a challenge.
And on top of that we arecurrently trying to sow some
spring oats into ground that wasploughed in the middle of
September for winter wheat.
So that sort of summarizes justwhere the struggles have been
(12:36):
over the last sort of seven,eight months on this particular
area.
And in terms of growth, just toback up what David was saying,
we measure weekly here.
So growth rates were 30, 40kilos maximum throughout April
there, combination, I suppose,of cold, wet soils and plus
disjointed fertilizerapplications.
(12:56):
But measured it at the start ofthe week there and we were
getting 63.
And with the heat that we'vehad in the last few days I would
imagine we'll be recording agrowth of 80 plus now at the
weekend in a couple of days,whenever we measure again.
So growth has at last startedto take off and we'll just
monitor pre-grazing heights orwhatever.
(13:17):
We're sitting at low 3,000sthere at the minute and we're
out full time.
So if we've got enough grass inthe grazing platform we'll even
skip rounds, because you couldskip around in 18 days.
So we'll be, rather than splita field into four, we just split
it into three and keep them.
Keep them moving, but also tryand hit the residuals if we can,
(13:37):
and if covers get a bit high,we'll skip a field, we'll zero
graze it or we'll bail it orsomething, because we're going
to be cutting silage on and offsort of every 10 days now for
the next few weeks anyway.
So that's the way we'llhopefully control it and get
everything back into some sortof shape again.
Uh, there's a lot of slurrystill in store that we weren't
able to get out in the spring.
So again we'll be.
(13:57):
We have a lessy tanker now withtrail and shoe, so we'll try
and apply some of it, maybe whenwe can after the cows, or
definitely after the zero grazer, and make use of it.
Try and reduce our boughtfertiliser requirements if we
can now, and that kind ofsummarises where we're at at the
(14:17):
minute.
Jason Rankin (14:19):
Thank you, andrew.
As you say, a very challengingyear all around, particularly
for those of you in wetter partsof the country.
John, william, coming on now toyou and how things have gone
for you, obviously we're goingto split in this farm because
John, you look after mainly thebeef cattle and William the
sheep.
So, john, do you want to startfrom the beef end of things as
(14:40):
to how things have gone for youthis year?
Start from the beef end ofthings as to how things have
gone for you this year.
John Egerton (14:45):
Yeah, thanks, Jason.
Yeah, it has been a difficultyear.
Most years are difficult here.
Anyway, We've had cattle outfrom early April, out and in and
doing the hokey-cokey andmoving around and doing damage.
We were lucky we got out earlywith slurry and we got out early
(15:09):
with fertilizer and the grassgrowth has been reasonable here
even with the wet conditions.
I was happy enough with thegrass growth.
The biggest problem wasutilization and leaving heavier
residuals than I would haveliked, doing a bit of damage.
We started about two weeks agotaking paddocks out, which has
(15:31):
worked very well.
We've cut paddocks off andwe've got those slurried and
they're coming again.
Well, Our growth last week wasactually 75, but our growth
never got down below about 40anyway.
So we were happy enough.
All cattle have been out nowfor about two weeks and the
(15:52):
issue is that some of them havebeen going into covers of three
to four thousand and a productthat should have lasted them
three days hasn't lasted themtwo days, Even after a day and a
half.
They've been looking for achange and tramping about.
The issue now will be thosepaddocks the next time around.
By right, those should be cutthe next time around, but
(16:18):
there's a bit of surface damageand there's a bit of dirt on the
grass, it wouldn't make verygood quality sedage.
So we're in a difficultsituation there.
This last few days it hasimproved.
Utilisation has definitelymassively improved.
We're almost around the firstrotation.
The last three paddocks of thefirst rotation I actually cut
them this morning, so we'll bemoving.
(16:40):
Tomorrow we'll be moving intothe second rotation, which
should help improve the thing.
The paddocks that were cut acouple of weeks ago have came
well and are ready for grazingagain now, even though it's only
two weeks.
Hopefully there's not going tocome too much rain.
My graph hasn't been thatpleasant to look at.
(17:01):
Recently it's just been showinga massive surplus, even though
realistically I hadn't a lot ofsurplus.
But hopefully next week, withcutting out these paddocks, the
graph will be more where I wantit to be.
Jason Rankin (17:17):
Thank you, William .
How are things going on thesheep end of the farm?
William Egerton (17:22):
Yeah, thanks, euston.
Like everyone else said, it hasbeen a very challenging spring.
Getting ewes and lambs turnedout early on in middle of March
was very difficult.
Ground was saturated, younglambs that don't survive well
out in the rain and they don'tsurvive well out in the rain.
And grass growth, as my fathersays, has sort of been alright
(17:46):
here.
Utilisation was tough going.
Some fields did get too wet tobe grazed at all and when they
did eventually dry up they werecut sort of towards the end,
middle of April, and I havenoticed that they were a wee bit
slower to come back again, justwith the cold weather.
(18:07):
But thankfully now the heat hascame, the sun has came out and
I should be doing okay for grass.
I'm going to be expecting grassto be up high 80s, high 90s
this week for growth.
Jason Rankin (18:20):
Joe William, what are your plans?
What are you likely to becutting silage on your farm?
Have you closed up anything?
Cutting silage on your farm?
Have you closed?
John Egerton (18:26):
up anything for silage at the present time.
Yeah, the silage ground onlygot applications to fertiliser
about three weeks ago, so it'sprobably another two weeks out
yet.
We hoped in the meantime to becutting away products almost
every week.
We normally aim for the lastweek in May and it's looking
(18:48):
like that's when it's going tobe this year.
It's bulking up fairly well now.
There's some of the waterground that didn't get slurry,
is a bit hungry looking and it'sprobably going to run the seed
head and it's not going to be asgood a quality, but hopefully
it will improve.
Someone said there about theprotein in the air samples.
(19:09):
So far the protein have beenreasonable.
I haven't had any issue withthe protein.
I'm not sure whether that's thefact that we got out early with
urea and slurry.
Maybe that has helped theprotein.
But the protein and air sampleshave been reasonable so far.
Jason Rankin (19:26):
Robert, we're now entering an ideal time of year
for overseeding clover.
What are the key steps to taketo maximise the chance of
successful stitching in ofclover?
Robert Patterson (19:37):
Yeah, as I say , jason, it's coming into the
ideal time.
Perhaps usually in a normalyear it would have been a
fortnight ago, but in terms ofsoil moisture and soil
temperature and daylight hours,those are the three things we
need to think about and we'vegot all those things at the
minute.
So if we're thinking aboutoverseeding, traditionally it
(19:59):
would be a white clover varietyand hopefully you'll have some
idea of paddock selection beforethis point.
But in terms of paddockselection, you'd be thinking
about the soil nutrient statusof the paddocks.
So ideally 2 plus for p and kand and above 6.3 for ph.
The prevalence of weeds in thepaddock is a consideration as
(20:23):
well, because there's limitedways to control the weeds when
the clover comes through.
So ideally a cleaner sward,looking at the sward in terms of
the proportion of sown speciescurrently in the sward and if
you're going to be happy withthat sward, say for the next
five or six years, if you get agood hit of clover in terms of
(20:43):
perennial ryegrass in it andalso the sward density.
So the denser the sward, themore difficult.
Overseeding clover is trying toget it established and I
suppose then getting a sown,getting plenty of soil contact,
probably using an ironbuck,scratch the surface a couple of
times and then really it's aboutgrazing management thereafter.
(21:07):
So trying to graze it atshorter grazing rotations, sort
of 18 days.
Lower pre-grazing covers 26 to2800 kilos of dry matter to the
hectare and reducing thenitrogen going on to those
paddocks.
So ideally no nitrogen, sort ofa month before establishment,
(21:28):
no nitrogen when it's sown andafter the second grazing post
sowing, then maybe going on witha half rate of nitrogen, sort
of 15 kilos to the hectare ifyou need the grass growth there,
all in an aim to try and reducethe competition from the grass
plants there and give the cloveras much of a fighting chance as
(21:52):
possible and getting as muchlight into the base of the sward
.
So a really quick turnaroundwith the overseeding.
You can be back in theregrazing in two or three weeks
time, the overseeding, and youknow you can be back in there
grazing in two or three weekstime if you're able to get in
and get the seed sown as soon asthe paddock is grazed or mown,
(22:12):
or whatever the case may be.
The full swardry seed is stillan option at this time of year
and it's probably a belt andbraces approach, but it's you
know you're probably going tohave a greater chance of a good
establishment.
But you're probably looking athave a greater chance of a good
establishment, but you'reprobably looking at this time of
year of being out of thatpaddock for eight to 10 weeks.
So it's just what that?
What implications that willhave on your stocking rate and
(22:35):
your demand at this time of year.
David Patterson (22:37):
I was just going to add, robert has given a
really good coverage there.
Robert has given a really goodcoverage there.
We were oversowing yesterday,actually last night, at
Hillsborough here with it's alittle bit different.
It was pure plantain seed thatwe were stitching into a
ryegrass sward.
It's part of the DERA-fundedplantain grazing study, just for
(23:01):
context.
But the point is what I didnotice, and even looking around
the grass check bulletin forthis week, soil moisture right
around the country on the sitesthat we test has come up closer
to field capacity and I think,even looking at that soil last
night, soil is in the perfectcondition right now for
(23:22):
overseeding because it is notcrumbly, it's not too hard at
the surface and it's almost, Iwould call it, at the plasticine
stage.
It has, uh, the, the watertable finally has got a little
bit lower down the soil profileand that plastic nature of the,
the very surface soil.
It was allowing the first twopasses of the empty iron block,
(23:44):
as I call it.
The first two passes were justscoring into it nicely and then
the third pass was dropping theseed in.
So it's perfect timing from asoil surface condition point of
view.
A coulter or a tine or any sortof, whatever machine it is,
whatever's cutting into thesurface, it's just allowing that
(24:05):
nice little groove to go in anddrop the seed in.
So it's really good timingright now.
And also just to re-emphasizeRobert's other point, the
aftercare is nearly as important, if not more important, and
what we're intending to do thisis an experimental paddock, if
you like, but we're going to goin and cut it probably as much
(24:26):
as every 10 days just to keepthe grass competition back.
A ryegrass regrowth after alight silage cut, heavy grazing
cover, whatever it may be, ishugely competitive and it's
amazing how quickly thoseryegrass tillers just close over
and a little tiny seedling thesize of your, your wee finger,
(24:47):
neil, is, is trying hard tocompete.
Whether it's a clover seedlingor a plantain doesn't matter, um
, they're having a huge job todo and that's why I think a lot
of overseeding has not beensuccessful in the past.
We haven't kept the grasscompetition back.
Jason Rankin (25:04):
Andrew, have you been taking any steps to
establish clover on your farm?
Andrew Dale (25:10):
We have.
If you walked my fields youwould think that I haven't, but
I've been doing a lot of thework that Robert basically
summarized there at the start ofhis talk.
There's no point of buyingclover seed if the soil P and
K's and P, h's and weed controlisn't right.
So over the last two, threeyears we've been working hard at
(25:30):
trying to get all those ducksin a row, if you like, and
really the farm is, I think, ina pretty good place now to try
and make include cloversuccessfully.
The other thing if you remember, I highlighted the fact we have
quite a tight grazing platformhere.
So again, we were feeding ithard with nitrogen in the past
(25:54):
because we were restricted inarea.
But because of the zero grazingand the flexibility it gives us
, now we're not just pushing thenitrogen as hard.
So again, because basically youcan do all the hard work you
like about clover, but if youbasically flood the thing with
nitrogen then the grass is justgoing to out-compete it.
So I think all the system, theoverall system, is much more
(26:18):
inviting if you like to makeclover a success.
So definitely this year weintend there's a local
contractor has got one of thesestitching in machines.
So definitely, we intend toactually, as we get round, sort
of over the next 10 days, I'llbe hopefully trying to do a bit.
Especially, as the guys haveall said there, soil conditions
(26:38):
are almost ideal at the minutefor it.
So we'll try and do a bit andsee how we get on.
Again, whenever we do a fullreseed, in the past we would
have always have used a bit ofclover.
I reseeded a big area a coupleof years ago actually, and weed
control was an issue in thefield.
So we we just sold it straightwith grass and we've got the
weeds under control now.
(26:58):
So I intend now this year totry and stitch a bit.
It was a hybrid grass actually,so it's quite open and it's now
in its second year.
So again, we'll probably go inand try and stitch in a wee bit
of more hybrid and a wee bit ofclover.
This time just through it.
It doesn't need ploughed around.
So we'll just try and renovateit, rejuvenate it that way and
hopefully get another two, threeyears out of it, but with the
(27:20):
clover this time.
Now we've got the weeds undercontrol.
So I'd also be very keen onmaybe red clover.
But again, the flexibility onthis farm is key and obviously,
at my time at Hillsborough I hadplenty of experience with red
clover and, yes, it's awonderful crop.
(27:41):
It can grow in fresh air, butyou need to have the right
weather window for that 24 48hours whenever you it's ready
for cutting and, unlike grass,it is such a small window.
Whenever it's ready it needscut and if that happens to be
two wet days, then you'reunfortunately it'll be very
difficult to make anythingthat's palatable at all for
(28:03):
livestock.
So, again it's it's somethingthat I am thinking of dabbling
with.
Uh, but my issue is that thethe best site I have for it in
terms of growing, the type ofground.
It's a 40 acre block, so it'sit's sort of go big or go home
type thing.
It's either.
To do half of it's only anuisance, so I don't know.
(28:26):
It's still because, again, yes,you can reduce your inputs, but
you've got to end up withsomething that you can feed to
livestock at the end of it, andI've threw out too many bad
black bales from my time atHillsborough to know that that's
not what conducive at all.
So we'll just have to see.
But no, the red clover thing isdefinitely something that I
(28:49):
would be keen to dabble with.
I think going forward, butdefinitely white clover across
the farm is something that, as astarting point, we're hoping to
go on that journey this yearfor sure.
Jason Rankin (29:01):
Thank you, andrew.
John William, have you beentaking any steps to establish
clover?
John Egerton (29:07):
Yeah, well, I'll maybe start here, but we have
been establishing clover for thelast two years that white
clover, and everything Robertsays is exactly right.
The big issue we have is afterthe 18 days when you're ready to
graze it.
Quite often it's wet and whenyou go in and graze that young
clover plant and it's wet,you're cramping the ground and
(29:29):
you're damaging the clover andit's difficult to get it
established in those conditions.
Then if you wait to the dryconditions, the clover smothered
out.
So it has worked well in someareas and in other areas it has
been difficult to establish.
We usually found that June wasactually the best month of the
(29:51):
year to establish the trover andthat's probably because ground
conditions are usually betterand it's easier to get back in
in those 18 days and graze itoff and give it a chance days
and graze it off and give it achance.
Usually in May the weather canbe changeable and to come back
in wet conditions it has beendifficult.
William has been establishingit in the sheep ground as well
(30:15):
and he's had difficulties, butI'll let him say that himself.
William Egerton (30:19):
A couple of years ago I stitched in quite a
bit of clover on the sheepground.
I maybe took on a wee bit toomuch than what I should have, as
I wasn't fit to graze some ofit off in time and it did get
smothered out.
Another issue with the sheepend is sheep would tend to
thicken grass out a lot and itis getting that soil contact and
(30:41):
getting the light down in.
Even when it is grazed off, thegrass can be very dense of
itself.
Some paddocks work well andothers not so well, and then
that wet winter I'll questionhow much of the clover has
actually survived through thewinter.
Jason Rankin (31:00):
David, for those farmers looking to do a full
reseed, obviously we've norecommended list in R Ireland
anymore, but what are the keythings they should be looking
for when selecting a grass seedmix?
David Patterson (31:10):
Yeah, I'll be as brief as possible.
It's a big subject.
You should probably still lookfor recommended list varieties.
There are other lists availablein the South and there's the
Scottish available in the south.
There's the Scottish list, theAHDB list, so you can still
(31:33):
check out if the varieties thatare available, perhaps through
local merchants or seed houses,to make sure they are actually
recommended on a list.
After that you're trying topick off the top of those lists.
Obviously, if it's a silage typesward, it's trying to match the
heading out dates of thevarieties with the likely time
(31:54):
that you take first cut or yourexpected sort of week when you
normally are able to achievefirst cut silage.
I think that's a critical pointto watch those heading out
dates achieve first cut silage.
I think that's a critical pointto watch those heading out
dates.
For a grazing type scenarioit's maybe a case of with or
(32:16):
without clover for a start off.
If it's with clover, it's maybedoubling the seed rate in a
mixture.
If it's a 12 to 14 kilo mixturerather than one or one and a
half, it's maybe three kilogramsof white clover going into that
full mixture, um and andwatching the varieties there as
well.
In that you want um williamwill maybe shoot me about this,
(32:37):
but it's it's wanting, uhdesiring, to put some more open
growing varieties and speciesfor that matter, you know it's
timothy as well as perennialryegrass and, on the ryegrass
varieties, having the slightlylater heading, more open types
such as the tetraploids.
So upping the proportion ofthose and again back to basics
(33:00):
mixtures shouldn't becomplicated.
Two to three grass varieties isreally all you need.
And if we're talking about amore extensive area yes, it's
about clover, but also lookingat those other grass species, if
you have a particularly dryfield, that whenever there's a
two week period in the summerwithout rain the field's going
(33:21):
brown or something as extreme asthat, you should be looking to
deeper rooting grasses,festoololium, tall fescue and
even cocksfoot.
Some of the more palatable,more digestible varieties of
cocksfoot are available On thesilage front.
We took silage off here atHillsborough off most of the
first cut area this week.
Conditions were good.
(33:43):
But the point is, when welooked at some of the more
advanced tillers the growingpoint still hadn't emerged.
It was probably aboutfour-fifths of the way up
through its travel and that wason the mature big tillers that
you lift out of the sward.
So it should be for thosepeople that are cutting now or
(34:04):
very recently or about to.
I think the quality level inryegrass should be pretty good
at the moment.
Jason Rankin (34:12):
That's it for this episode of the Grass Check
Podcast, and my thanks to DavidPatterson from AFBI, robert
Patterson from CAFRI, andrewDale and John and William
Edgerton for joining us.
Don't forget to rate, reviewand subscribe to this podcast.
You can listen on Apple, amazonand Google Podcasts, as well as
Spotify.
For more information, you cango to the Grass Check website
(34:36):
wwwagri-searchorg.
Slash.
Grasscheck and Grass Checksocial media channels.
I'm Jason Rankin and join usthe next time for the Grass
Check podcast.
Until then, stay safe.
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