Management Notes for January 2018

Management Notes are prepared by staff from the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE). CAFRE is a college within the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA).

Soil auger to take soil samples

DAIRYING

Prepared by: Christopher Breen

Soil analysis

Now is an ideal time to carry out soil analysis. Soil samples should only be taken when no fertiliser, slurry, manure or lime has been applied for at least 12 weeks. If you intend to apply slurry to grassland in February take soil samples first.

With a soil analysis informed decisions can be made about applications of fertilisers and slurry. If the correct levels of nutrients are applied yields should be optimised, cost savings may be possible and it is good for water quality.

A standard soil analysis gives an indication of:

• Soil pH.
• Soil phosphorus index.
• Soil potassium index.
• Soil magnesium index.

Sampling procedure

Soil augers and sample bags are available from your local DAERA office. For meaningful soil analysis it is essential to obtain a sample that is representative of the area being tested.

• Always use a corer when taking samples. Never use a spade or lift a handful of soil from a ploughed field as a poor sample is worse than none at all.
• Take cores down to 75mm (3”) for grassland and 150mm (6”) for arable.
• Each sample should not represent more than four hectares. Divide large fields, noting and sampling each area separately.
• Take cores from the field by crossing it in a ‘W’ pattern.
• Take 20 cores from the field, bulk them together, mix and put in a labelled sample bag.
• Don’t sample near water troughs, gates, headlands, trees, dung/urine patches or areas where stock shelter.
• Don’t put cores from different soil types together in a sample. Avoid small areas of a different soil type or take two samples, one from each area.

Getting the cow back in calf!

Breeding is well underway. All cows that are six weeks calved should have displayed a heat and are past their ‘voluntary waiting period’. Heats seen after this should be bred and a record of the service made. Assess breeding efficiency by working out the submission rate for the last three weeks - how many cows that completed their ‘voluntary waiting period’ three weeks ago have been served? This answers the question, how many cows did I serve that were eligible to be served in the last 21 days? It should be all of them! If not, there is a problem with heat detection on your farm.

Online submission of slurry exports, derogation records and derogation application

NIEA introduced a new system on 1 January for the online submission of manure export records and fertilisation accounts. The system makes it easier and quicker to submit records, while at the same time reducing the risk of errors and hence potential penalties being applied to Basic Payments. There are three separate web links for:

The submission of manure export records on non-derogated farms.
The submission of fertilisation accounts (and manure export records) for farms that operated under an approved derogation in 2017.
The derogation application form.

Online submission of manure export records

The manure export records can be completed and submitted through DAERA Online Services. This facility sits alongside the CAFRE Nutrient Calculators which many of you use to calculate nitrogen loading and storage capacity. Under the new process you or your agent should prepare and submit manure export records for 2017 online by midnight 31 January 2018.

Online submission of fertilisation accounts

For farms that operated under an approved derogation for the calendar year 2017, the annual fertilisation account will now also be submitted online. Under the new process you or your agent should prepare fertilisation accounts and manure export records and submit these by midnight 1 March 2018.

Online submission of the derogation application form

The online derogation application form can be found on the DAERA website.

BEEF AND SHEEP

Prepared by: Darryl Boyd

BEEF

Clipping cattle again in mid-winter

Clipping the backs of cattle, particularly young cattle susceptible to pneumonia, is now common practice when they are housed in the autumn.

Four months could now have passed if it was done at housing and the clipped area may no longer be visible.

Keeping cool can be the biggest problem facing growing cattle, particularly with higher daily liveweight gains. Is it worthwhile clipping their backs again in mid-winter?  

SHEEP

Viability of the ‘small lamb’

Farmers often ask if small lambs at birth are viable. The answer of course depends on why they are small. In multiple births (especially triplets) foetal growth will reduce in pregnancy resulting in smaller lambs. This is natural and if the ewe is fed correctly these lambs could in fact be more viable than twins from a ewe underfed at the critical point before lambing. In multiples, litter mates that died can affect the remaining lambs due to the number of cotyledons available, fewer of these result in low birth weights and viability. Avoiding stress at mating is the key factor in avoiding this problem.

Fluke

Regular dosing for fluke using a suitable product should be considered. Be aware of the stages of fluke the product you are using will control. Talk to your vet about an appropriate fluke drenching programme. Ongoing fluke treatment (perhaps every six weeks) will be important this year due to the constant wet weather which has increased fluke incidence on many farms. As with worms, fluke resistance to treatment can be an issue. This can be difficult to determine by faecal egg counts but can be confirmed through post-mortem examination of ewes that have died.

Sheep tasks

• Assess your silage. If you have not done this yet, do it as soon as possible so supplementary feeding can be tailored to forage quality. Also assess how much there is as you might need more concentrates or alternative forage if silage is scarce.
• If feeding silage to housed ewes take the silage from the centre of the pit and don’t feed poor quality baled silage. Pregnant sheep require the best quality silage you have. Feeding good quality silage will also help prevent listeriosis. 
• Remove waste silage regularly, especially in late pregnancy. Ad-lib silage means ad-lib quality silage!
• Ensure all sheep are able to eat concentrates equally. 
• Check water troughs are not leaking. This will save on straw bedding.
• Ensure sheep cake has a high level of DUP, usually soya. Over 15% soya is recommended in the last three weeks of pregnancy.
• Take veterinary advice on worming and fluke treatments and administer clostridial vaccine booster at the right time - four weeks pre-lambing.
• Use raddle marks for greater accuracy in vaccinating batches.

Soil testing

From mid-January and throughout February is a good time to carry out soil analysis. Do not take samples within three months of nutrient application and when soils are waterlogged. For grassland sample to a depth of 75mm (3”) and 150mm (6”) for arable. For more information on how to take soil samples, see the dairying notes.

Exporting/importing organic manures

As with last year records of exports of all organic manures must be submitted to NIEA. The deadline for submission is midnight 31 January 2018. For more information, see the dairying notes. Exporting may not be common in the beef/sheep sector but it is important if you are importing slurry you stay below 170kg nitrogen per hectare.

HORTICULTURE

Prepared by: Kieran Lavelle

Nutrition for apple trees for crop consistency

Last year, established Bramley orchards throughout Northern Ireland produced high yields. Several factors contributed to this exceptional productivity including:

• Regular winter pruning to encourage good tree habit and quality fruit bud formation.
• Mild spring weather conditions during blossom.
• Unusually good growing conditions during the fruit development period.
• Targeted orchard nutrition programmes based on soil analyses.
• Useful chemical growth control to restrict shoot extension.

The majority of Bramley fruit is carried on two year wood or older and this variety has both spur and tip bearing characteristics. The greatest proportion of crop on any tree is carried in those sections with the best exposure to sunlight, branches of the right age and orientation and where there is a spread of fruiting twigs across the branch. It is important to keep these characteristics in mind when pruning, no matter if the trees have open centre or centre leader habits.

To address orchard nutrition, top fruit growers are invited to a meeting in Armagh City Hotel on Tuesday 23 January at 7.30pm. Mark Horner from Engage Agro will share his knowledge on nutritional actions that will optimise fruit crop development in established Bramley trees, especially given that orchards produced very heavily last year. This forum will help top fruit growers make key management decisions on nutrition for the 2018 season. If you would like to attend, please email kieran.lavelle@daera-ni.gov.uk or telephone 07990 575 893.

Amenity Forum update

The Amenity Forum is the UK voluntary initiative for amenity horticulture. It promotes best practice in all aspects of weed, pest and disease management and is also the voice of the sector. You are invited to an event on Thursday 8 February which will address issues of interest and relevance to all in the amenity sector. The event will consist of short presentations by speakers from the Chemicals Regulation Division of HSE, BASIS Registration, the National Sprayer Testing Service, STRI, CAFRE and the Amenity Forum itself.

The presentations and topics for discussion will include:

• Effective and efficient use of chemicals for weed, pest and disease control. Pesticide use is under the spotlight emphasising more the need for efficient and timely application. What are the key elements in ensuring your sprayer equipment is set correctly for optimum use? What are the essential routine checks and the legal requirements for sprayer testing?
• Operating at best practice standards and training needs. What are Amenity Assured standards and why and how should we apply them? What are the benefits of Continuous Professional Development and why is our attitude to training so important going forward?
• A review of issues impacting the horticulture sector in terms of weed, pest and disease management. Integrated control is key to success going forward. How do we do this and what alternatives to chemical control are available? How do we better communicate the importance of what we do?

For more detail on the speakers, presentation content and the Amenity Forum, please visit the Forum website.

The event, which is free of charge, will take place at 10.00am in the Conference Hall, Greenmount Campus on Thursday 8 February 2018. To book a  place/places on this short course which is part of a UK wide programme and provides valuable Continuing Professional Development, please email: admin@amenityforum.net with details of those who wish to register, their company/organisation and title the email Amenity Forum Event Application - Greenmount Campus 8 February  2018.

PIGS

Prepared by Liz Donnelly

Is your pig business properly insured?

A recent analysis of the pig benchmarking figures shows a huge range in the cost of pig farm insurance. Although the size of business influences cost, there is still a range for businesses of a similar size. This leads me to ask the question “Is your pig business properly insured”?

In addition to insuring farm buildings and livestock other areas to consider and discuss with you insurance company include public liability, employers liability, personal accident, wages/salary cover and loss of profit. Spending time now checking your level of cover and what is actually covered could be time well spent, especially if you are in the unfortunate position of having to make a claim due to an accident.

Bear in mind the following when checking your level of cover:

• Does your policy cover the cost of providing new buildings? Some policies may be based on the estimated value of existing buildings which is a lot less than the cost of a new build. Is you mill insured if you mill and mix feed on the farm? There is the potential to forget about this building when taking out cover.
• Are your pigs valued at the correct level? The value of pigs changes depending on pig and feed prices. Does your insurance cover pigs in transit, for example, pigs being transported from one farm to another or to the factory? Are your breeding animals valued at their true value and not at cull sow price?

Make a New Year resolution to check the level of insurance for your pig business is adequate – just don’t assume it is!

Quality assurance – Top five non-conformances

As you are all aware new quality assurance standards were introduced on 1 October last year. The top five non-conformances for the first 25 assessments that took place on farms in Northern Ireland after the introduction of the new standards are shown in the table below. Reasons for some of the non-conformances are also listed.

Pig slurry exports

As well as January being the start of a new year it is also the month to send your organic manure export records to NIEA. This year you are required to submit the records online. You can read more about the online submission and how to access the new system in the dairying notes. The deadline for submission is midnight 31 January 2018.

Below is a reminder of the figures to use to calculate nitrogen (N) production:

N content of pig slurry at 4% dry matter is 3.6 kg per cubic metre
Annual N production figures:

• Sows and served gilts -16kg
• Maiden gilts -11kg
• Boars -18kg
• Pigs from weaning to sale - 2.38kg
• Pigs from 35kg to sale - 2.00kg

And finally…..

I wish you all a very happy and prosperous 2018!

Notes to editors: 

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2. All media enquiries to DAERA Press Office or tel: 028 9052 4619.

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