Consider soil changes after waterlogged winter
Travelling to a farm in the Trough of Bowland last week gave me opportunity to reflect on what's been a topsy-turvy winter: sometimes mild, sometimes cold, mostly soggy – and catastrophically wet for some, writes Elaine Jewkes.
That particular area had suffered a fair bit, with large amounts of water damage to the roads and indeed one road closed by a landslip.
And yet the mainly mild temperatures mean that the grassland is in most places looking quite green. For me that just means a mild dread of getting the mower out again – last seen only at Christmas! – but for farming it means thinking about preparing pastures for cutting and grazing.
The variability in the weather means that travelling on the land is yet a pipe dream for some, but feasible for others on lighter land and/or in drier areas.
In these cash-strapped times for those enduring poor prices, making the most of grass is an important part of the answer to economic survival so there are a few considerations of the differences this winter may have made to the soil and the nutrients it contains. Some nutrients are readily lost through leaching – passing with water through the soil. Nitrogen as nitrate is the main one, but the available form of sulphur, sulphate, is also lost just as easily.
The mild conditions mean that in less waterlogged parts, mineralisation, the turnover of organic matter in the soil to release nutrients, may have carried on to some degree, but the wet spells mean that drainage is never far away, and so freshly released nutrients can be lost.
We saw this after the 2012/13 winter too and sulphur was deficient from earlier in the year than normal. So considering a sulphur-containing fertiliser for first cut may be a wise choice this year.
The availability of phosphorus may have changed if soils have been very waterlogged, and the potash status and pH may have changed, so add flooded fields to the list of those to soil-test this spring. It' a cheap way to ensure the grass can receive all the nutrients it needs – and no more.
Full slurry pits can be a headache, but, when ground conditions allow they can be a great source of P and K. Don't fall foul of the rule requiring maximum dressings of 30m3/ha (2700 galls/acre), at least three weeks apart during February.
Daffodils are flowering near home in Cheshire – let's hope it's a kind spring.
* By Elaine Jewkes, Society Director, British Grassland Society
