Spreading nitrogen and sulphur at the same time means more grass
Applying fertilisers containing nitrogen and sulphur means the grass uses nitrogen more effectively, you get more kgs of dry matter per kg of nitrogen that you apply
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Turning stock out to grass
It might seem early but on many farms across the UK, stock will be going to grass in February. It’s worth identifying what paddocks are going to be grazed first and have your reels and pigtails ready to go. Animals should start grazing on grass covers of ideally 2,200 – 2,400 kg DM/ha to ease animals back into grazing. The first animal groups to turn out to grass should be young growing cattle or freshly calved dairy cows.
As animals are turned back out to grass, allocating the correct area can be difficult. For beef animals use 2% of body weight as a good guide for intakes. A 350 kg beef animal being turned to grass, allocate 7 kg DM/Ha per day. A crossbred dairy herd after calving with 20% heifers will start off at about 13 kg DM/Ha intake so factor this in when allocating grass. If feeding 3 kg meal and 3 kg silage, then allocate 7 – 8 kg of grass DM. You can increase this allocation by 20% twice per week. Aim to have the first rotation finished by early April and no sooner.
Prioritise slurry for silage ground or on grazing paddocks which have low soil P & K indices. Try and apply more dilute slurry on grazing (~ 20 m3/ha). If applying N fertiliser, soil conditions need to be good, with minimum soil temperatures of 5 – 6 degrees. Hold off spreading if heavy rain is forecasted. We recommend 80 – 120 kg/ha of YaraBela Nutri Booster (20 – 30 kg N/ha) for this first application on paddocks that haven’t received slurry.
Grassland agronomy advice
The latest grassland fertiliser and nutrition advice from the Yara agronomists.
Recent grassland webinars
Advice on managing fertiliser inputs on first cut silage crops this spring
Philip Cosgrave, Yara's Grassland Agronomist is joined by Nicola Ingram and Nigel Mills, Yara Area Managers for UK and Ireland, to discuss a range of topics to help inform farmers on how best to manage fertiliser applications this spring on silage crops.
Yara and CAFRE Nutrients Action Programme (NAP) - Update for fertiliser distributors
In this webinar Philip Cosgrave, Yara Grassland Agronomist and Aveen McMullan, Senior Agricultural Technologist at CAFRE provide an update on the Nutrients Action Programme (NAP) regulations relating to the use and application of inorganic fertilisers and an explanation of the requirement for fertilisation plans.
How to get healthy grass and happy cows
In this webinar, Philip Cosgrave is joined by Conrad Ferris from AFBI to talk about the planning behind a successful spring grassland nutrition strategy.
How to manage lime and fertiliser on a livestock farm
In this webinar, Philip Cosgrave of Yara and Kevin Havekes of Kilwaughter Lime collaborate to give an insight into how lime and fertiliser work hand in hand.
Grass, milk and robots - webinar
Our grassland agronomy expert Philip Cosgrave joins Cormac Garvey from Lely for this webinar to discuss grazing systems for robotic milking, grassland management and grassland nutrition management.
How manage grassland fertilisation in simple steps
In this webinar, Jon Telfer, Philip Cosgrave and Nigel Hester talk through the steps needed for successful grassland fertilisation.
Listen to the latest grassland podcasts
If you are short of time why not check out our bite-size podcasts for the latest thoughts on grassland nutrition.
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