Like many farmers at the minute, I’m waiting on my soil sample results so that I can get a nutrient management plan done.

I need the nutrient management plan to know exactly how much nitrogen and phosphorus I’m allowed to apply.

Although there have been no changes to the amount of fertiliser a farmer can apply, with the new fertiliser register now in place, in the event of an inspection the Department will know exactly how much fertiliser each farmer has purchased, so everyone wants to make sure they stay on the right side of the line.

For years I’ve been routinely applying 18-6-12, in fairness mostly based on the results of soil samples but now my indices are fairly good, I’m reluctant to let them slip by applying straight nitrogen. Again, I don’t want to apply more than I’m allowed to either, so I’ll see what comes back in the sample results and work from there.

Since I’ve moved from suckling into a finishing system, a lot more meal is being fed, my slurry should be much stronger, so I want to try and cover the entire farm at least once.

The first slurry went out with the pipe and trailing shoe last Friday but as usual, no matter how well I think I have my tanks mixed, they always seem to end up getting thick before the contractor can get them completely emptied. A bit of water will need to be added and Jamie and Sammy will come back and finish them off another day.

Performance

It's amazing how a slight change in the weather can affect livestock performance. All our lambs were weighed between Christmas and New year and split into two batches. The light batch were treated with an injectable wormer that covers external parasites as I knew they wouldn’t be ready before the withdrawal of 56 days was up. They were put onto very good grass and fed a small amount of meal daily.

Three weeks ago, the product withdrawal time had passed, so we decided to bring them in and weigh them. There were 55 lambs in the batch and I was hopeful that some would be ready. I was disappointed but not completely surprised, after the amount of rain and cold weather that had passed since Christmas, that only one lamb had reached the desired weight.

The lambs were put back to a fresh bite of grass and let be for a further 14 days, but they were 14 dry, pleasant days. Since the price of lamb has gone through the roof in the past three weeks, I decided to reduce my target killing weight and weigh the lambs again. After the 14 days, 33 of the 55 lambs had reached my initial target weight. When nature is with you, it's amazing what can be achieved.

Hopefully the price holds until they are all ready.