Grassland and forage crops

With most 1st cut silage crops harvested at this stage, the focus should turn to fertilising the 2nd cut if you haven’t already done so. The dry and warm weather is hitting grass growth and particularly 2nd cut regrowth. At the time of writing this, there was no sign of impending rain in the forecast, and farmers will be asking themselves should they apply now or wait until some rain is forecasted.

My advice is to split the application and use a nitrate-based fertiliser. Apply half the fertiliser nitrogen now and then wait to apply the remainder just before rain is forecasted. Potential nitrogen losses from spreading a nitrate-based fertiliser are very low in these conditions, but nitrogen losses from urea could easily reach 30% or greater. You might say, why not wait to apply the full application rate before rain is forecasted, but sometimes we receive sudden showers of rain during these dry periods which hasn’t been forecasted.

With 39% of grassland soil samples analysed in the UK falling below the optimum, potash application rates on many farms are resulting in loss of yield on silage fields. With a tonne of grass silage dry matter removing 30 kg of K2O, a 1st cut silage crop could easily be removing 150 kg of K2O per ha. A 2nd cut could be removing 100 – 120 kg K2O per ha. Maintaining and building soil P & K fertility is a worthwhile investment. For this 2nd cut, should you be using a NPKS fertiliser such as YaraMila Sulphur Cut instead of straight N?