Ideal time to Fertilize/Slurry

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Dratted

Well-Known Member
What is the ideal time of year to fertilize & slurry grazing and silage ground. Aiming for best use of both of them, least nitrogen lost, best growth times etc. Silage aiming to be cut at the end of may/start of june & grazing to start around the 1st of april.

Thanks
 
Wondering the same myself as far as i know fertiliser needs moisture within 48 hours to work best
Slurry that was spred after first grazing and got washed in the ground seems to be working Going to chance 20-30 units of urea on this tomorrow as time is pushing on and hope next week is milder
 
Some say best time to spread slurry is on a day that's no good for drying clothes like with little wind and a bit misty helps to get best use of the nitrogen in it, grass uses about 2 units N /day so if you spread 90 for silage on 1st June it needs to be out at least 45 days so for that amount looking at 12-15 April.
 
This may seem like a stupid question, but, on grazing ground/paddocks, is little and often best or a couple of big hits of fertilizer better?

Say two paddocks are grazed week on week off, each one grazed tight to the ground, would it be better to apply 0.25 cwt after grazing or just apply 2 cwt at the start of the year?
 
Dratted said:
This may seem like a stupid question, but, on grazing ground/paddocks, is little and often best or a couple of big hits of fertilizer better?

Say two paddocks are grazed week on week off, each one grazed tight to the ground, would it be better to apply 0.25 cwt after grazing or just apply 2 cwt at the start of the year?
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.25cwt don't carry much N, if you're talking CAN it's7 units, hard to put it out that low tbh, if you're thinking 2cwt this time of year chuck it out in 2 goes, lessdiesel and time involved ,same result. If you mean chucking it all out in one go in early April this year was a disaster for that.
 
Spanner said:
.25cwt don't carry much N, if you're talking CAN it's7 units, hard to put it out that low tbh, if you're thinking 2cwt this time of year chuck it out in 2 goes, lessdiesel and time involved ,same result. If you mean chucking it all out in one go in early April this year was a disaster for that.
Click to expand...

I used a bad example :whistle: What I wanted to know, would it be better to consistently apply fertilizer throughout the year in smaller amounts at ideal times (during warm periods and periods where there is a low grass cover) or apply a large amount once at the start of the grazing year.

Another stupid question, will large amounts of fertilizer help early growth? There is the usual talk of people spreading high amounts of fertilizer because 'its a bad year' but if the growing conditions aren't correct, surely the ground won't make use of the fertilizer?
 
I would be of the little and often brigade at the shoulders of the year. Very little fertiliser otherwise but that is due to our lowish stocking rate.
 
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