Cathal Crean

Co Wexford

The rain that fell over the last two weeks was more than welcome. My land is heavy in nature and although it didn’t suffer from the drought to the same extent as other farms in my region, the rain will help to boost grass growth and improve quality.

I cut my second cut silage on 17 July and I was very happy with the yield and quality. We got showers of rain shortly after it and I dressed all the grazing ground with 25 units of nitrogen and spread a bag per acre of 10:10:20 on fields with low P and K index soils.

As weather was so dry and ground conditions were ideal for field work, I spread farmyard manure on some grazing ground and followed it up two weeks later with 2t/ac of ground limestone.

I reseeded a three acre paddock in May and sprayed it with a post-emergence herbicide in June. The sward is doing very well. I plan on sowing more grass seed in a six acre paddock when the barley is cut off it.

My calves have been dosed for worms twice so far this grazing season using an ivermectin-based product on both occasions. I will start creep grazing the calves in the next few days to allow access to fresh, lush grass and let the cows clean out the paddocks better.

I housed half of my spring 2013 bulls for finishing in mid-July. They weighed 530kg on 9 July, gaining 1.25kg/day at grass. I fed them for two weeks before housing and built them up to 6kg.

They are now on ad-lib concentrates and straw. The ration is made up of 70% of my own rolled barley, 20% soya hulls and 10% soyabean meal and minerals.

They are housed on slats with a straw bedded lie-back area. The remaining bulls are still at grass and will be housed in the next two to three weeks for finishing. I will also feed them concentrates at grass before housing.

Weather permitting, I hope to start harvesting my spring barley this weekend.