From my fert rep I don't think so nice to think that but gass price will most likely stay high so will fert.
Fert prices and stocking rates
- Thread starter Just because
- Start date
From my fert rep I don't think so nice to think that but gass price will most likely stay high so will fert.
muleman
Member
They would....... if we had half as many as we have now !
- Location
- Ceredigion
Mine lived on 40 acres of swedes some stubble turnips and grass , I do admit to using firt on the swedesDepends where you farm! Also you do need conserved forage at some point! Without shutting up a big acreage you will need fert in most cases…
- Location
- Owaka, New Zealand
Would be interesting in alot of cases to simply spend the budget on lime only
alot of farms will have a MASSIVE "legacy pool" of nutrients and a shift in pH would supply more to the plant than putting moron
fert companies love their morons though and a good parasite never kills the host
muleman
Member
Cant imagine some reps saying, 'wait it will get cheaper'.
Theyre probably guessing as much as we are in these uncertain times.
- Location
- Ceredigion
To be honest I had a plan before the price increase , more lime, introducing more legumes where it suits and plenty on slurry
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
if it wasn’t for my forage crops and cereals, I would have a much smaller fertiliser bill. The only N that goes on grassland is a small dose on some fields to encourage early growth, and a small dose on some others to enlarge the Autumn flush and shorten the winter.
Very little forage made, and much of that is sold.
I have ramped up N level on the fodder beet in recent years in order to encourage top growth, and won’t be cutting back on that.
- Location
- Cheshire
The slurry point is fine as long as you have some available. Our neighbour always used too be looking where too lose slurry. This last 5 years he won’t part with a drop of it. Replaced large part of his fert bill through better utilisation. I’m glad we’ve feeding cattle inside all the time, their muck gets more valuable by the day!!
Took on this farm tenancy three years ago. Previous tenant had left it in a poor state..hedge encroachment into fields, rubbish fences, bad field access and lots of soft rushes in poor weedy pp. He only ran sheep.
Have sorted the above out with more gateways and a chainsaw.
Now can rotate cattle and sheep round the 7 fields I have easily.
Year by year the grass has improved in both quality and quantity and soft rushes down by 50%. Put no fertilizer on except what drops out the rear end of animals. Could do with lime but farm access is very difficult over narrow old canal bridge. Suckler cattle always return in calf and look fine/fat.
Last year the sheep had a poor scanning rate even with concentrate feeding pre and post tupping as they looked under condition in early autumn. Lambing was fine but cost too much in feed.
This year have really tried hard to manage grass growth by constantly moving flock/herd around especially early in the spring and reducing flock size by 15%. Weaned lambs off much earlier (8-10 weeks), destocked by selling ram lambs asap as stores then followed by unwanted ewe lambs. Ewes are getting no concentrates this year until pre lambing as they are in 100% better condition. They will go off farm on top winter tack after tupping untill 3 weeks pre lambing.
Hoping scanning will be better this year as a result of better ewe condition pre tupping and that the improved lamb numbers and milk production will boost my income and my feed costs will over half.
Learnt the hard way that there's no point having loads of sheep and a few cattle if you've got no good grass and spend too much on bought in feed. Looking forward to next year as fields still have a good covering. Cattle are away in the next couple of weeks to winter field. Tups out in a month and sheep will be away too.
It takes time to get the right stocking rate on a new farm.
Grass first then stock it accordingly not the other way round.
Have sorted the above out with more gateways and a chainsaw.
Now can rotate cattle and sheep round the 7 fields I have easily.
Year by year the grass has improved in both quality and quantity and soft rushes down by 50%. Put no fertilizer on except what drops out the rear end of animals. Could do with lime but farm access is very difficult over narrow old canal bridge. Suckler cattle always return in calf and look fine/fat.
Last year the sheep had a poor scanning rate even with concentrate feeding pre and post tupping as they looked under condition in early autumn. Lambing was fine but cost too much in feed.
This year have really tried hard to manage grass growth by constantly moving flock/herd around especially early in the spring and reducing flock size by 15%. Weaned lambs off much earlier (8-10 weeks), destocked by selling ram lambs asap as stores then followed by unwanted ewe lambs. Ewes are getting no concentrates this year until pre lambing as they are in 100% better condition. They will go off farm on top winter tack after tupping untill 3 weeks pre lambing.
Hoping scanning will be better this year as a result of better ewe condition pre tupping and that the improved lamb numbers and milk production will boost my income and my feed costs will over half.
Learnt the hard way that there's no point having loads of sheep and a few cattle if you've got no good grass and spend too much on bought in feed. Looking forward to next year as fields still have a good covering. Cattle are away in the next couple of weeks to winter field. Tups out in a month and sheep will be away too.
It takes time to get the right stocking rate on a new farm.
Grass first then stock it accordingly not the other way round.