Nutrient Management Training

Michael Garvey, CAFRE, recently held a Nutrient Management training course on the dairy farm of Eamon and Philip Toner, Armagh attended by over 50 local farmers. Philip has been making use of alternative systems of slurry spreading for five years and this season he has used a 7m trailing shoe to gain maximum benefit from slurry nutrients.

Cow slurry contains valuable Nitrogen, Phosphate and Potash. On average 4,500 litres of dairy cow slurry has a total nutrient content of approximately 13 KG of N; 5 KG of P; and 14 KG of K.

However, the method and timing of slurry application are two factors that determine their utilization by the grass sward. Research has shown that spreading slurry during the growing season with a trailing shoe tanker almost doubles the use of slurry nitrogen and reduces the need for bag nitrogen. The trailing shoe has other benefits including a wider window for slurry spreading after silage cuts and a much reduced smell during spreading.

For second cut silage, Philip has been able to reduce his total fertiliser use by 60 kilos per hectare and still meet crop nutrient demand specified by CAFRE Crop Nutrient Recommendation Report. On the 1^st of July five week second cut re-growths of 21 tonnes of fresh grass per hectare were recorded using grass clips. Philip hopes to achieve similar savings in fertiliser by using the trailing shoe to spread 22 m cu of slurry per hectare on his 3^rd cut.

Farmer were keen to examine fibre residues left after slurry had been spread with the training shoe tanker. It was obvious from inspection of the swards that this would not cause any problems of silage contamination in the second cut.

Dairy farmers reviewing the effectiveness of spreading slurry using a training shoe tanker