Donal Scully

Limerick

I harvested 35 acres of first-cut silage on 28 May. It was mowed on 27 May in the afternoon and tedded out the following morning to wilt.

Grass was then rowed up in the evening and ensiled in the pit. It bulked up considerably over the past week to 10 days before cutting. Quality should be excellent.

Slurry will most likely be spread on aftermath this week and half of the ground will be closed up for second cut. First-cut silage got 3,000 gallons/acre of slurry and urea to make up 100 units of nitrogen.

I have been spreading fertilizer after every grazing with pasture sward. From now on, I will go with CAN after each grazing to boost re-growth. There are 18 days of grazing ahead of cattle which is more than I would like.

Weather depending, I will hopefully close up two paddocks next week and bale them the following week. The grazing block has seen great grass growth lately.

Stocking rate on the grazing block is 4.63 LU/ha at present, with a grazing demand of 74kg DM/ha/day. I have repaired a paddock that was damaged from grazing by surface seeding.

Two paddocks have been marked for reseeding and will be sprayed in the coming week to kill off grass. We had serious rainfall a few weeks ago and cows had to be housed as the land was flooded.

Cows are being used to clean out paddocks after weanlings and doing a good job where ground is dry. They are getting pre-calving minerals and there are 43 cows due to start calving from 20 June.

Weanlings were weighed a fortnight ago. Bulls averaged 1.47kg/day from their last weighing at turnout in late February. Heifers averaged 1.03kg/day.

Bulls weighed 374kg and are due to be housed on 1 August for finishing under 16 months. Heifers weighed 330kg. Weanlings have just been drench for worms and bulls will be treated again at housing.