Dry and hot weather hitting grass hard

The recovery time of swards following rain will depend on the severity of drought - the longer the drought, the longer the recovery.

Farmers will be looking to fertilise grazing and silage swards to maximise growth when the rain arrives. Don’t be tempted to spread fertiliser before the rain. Heavy rain combined with dry and hard field surfaces is ideal for fertiliser run-off. Best to leave applications until after the initial rain.

If nitrogen (N) fertiliser has been applied over the last couple of weeks when grass growth has been well below average, then a large portion of this N will still be present for the grass to utilise when enough rain arrives. How much, depends on when it was applied and the level of grass growth in the meantime. Important to also factor in rapid mineralisation of organic matter by soil microbes following rain adds to the pool of N available for plant uptake. 

When the rain arrives, reduce the target N rate by 30% for fertilising silage crops where a very light crop of grass has been harvested, to take account of N carryover from the previous fertilisation and soil organic N mineralisation. If silage crops were fertilised within the last three weeks, then there is no requirement to reapply N. Typical fertiliser application rates of 230 – 320 kg/ha of YaraMila Sulphur Cut will be required for silage swards once the drought ends.