2 days ago
Listen: LESS not all plain sailing for beef-shed slurry
The first episode of the Beef Brief podcast heard from Co. Cavan-based winter beef finisher Sam Hill, who took the opportunity to highlight challenges he is facing with spreading cattle slurry produced from beef cattle through Low Emission Slurry Spreading (LESS) systems.
Farmers who had a stocking rate of 100kg N/Ha or above in 2023 are be required to use LESS equipment when slurry spreading this year.
Speaking on the Agriland Beef Brief podcast, the beef farmer said: ' I have the dribble bar for spreading slurry and that's another thing I wouldn't be 100% confident on.
'It's good in wet weather but when the weather comes like this [dry] and you're spreading slurry with the dribble bar, if you're taking silage back, you're tending to bring some of it [slurry] back in with you. It needs to be very thin.'
Click here to listen to the full podcast.
The beef farmer explained that he has tried alternative LESS systems to comply with the regulations such as the trailing shoe.
'I had the contractor with the trailing shoe and I can see no difference with the dribble bar and the trailing shoe LESS systems.
'It puts it down that bit further but once the growth comes and if it's dry, the grass will suck up the slurry as well with it. I think that's something all farmers have to look at.
The farm enterprise is unusual for the region of Shercock, Co. Cavan in that Sam is growing a portion of his own concentrate feed also which is fed to the beef cattle in a wholecrop mix helping to reduce the need for bought in straw in the diet also.
This crop will be cut and ensiled as wholecrop for beef cattle feed over the winter
The farmer discussed how the enterprise transitioned from dairy farming to bull beef and onto heifer and steer finishing and Sam talks through the pros and cons of finishing traditional breed cattle over continental breed cattle.
