It has been a hectic couple of weeks here.

I think my jeep has journeyed halfway around the country in a matter of days. I was away in Monaghan with Alison for a few days and then on to Leitrim to meet the other participants of the BETTER sheep programme.

A few days later, I was in Kildare to attend a Grass 10 walk. Though at times you wonder where to find the time to attend these talks and walks, you always come away from them having gained some new information or met with someone with interesting points to make or hot topics to debate.

When the majority of a farmer’s day is spent in isolation or with very little contact with the outside world, these trips are vital.

I encourage other farmers to find the time also even at a local level to get involved in their discussion groups or local clubs and activities.

The broken weather of the last two weeks has made it difficult to keep surplus grass removed from the grazing rotations. Hopefully the weather this week will give us more opportunities to get things under control.

Grass growth is well above demand at 73kg of dry matter per hectare (DM/ha) and the biggest issue is maintaining quality as grass is starting to want to head out.

I am spreading 25kg of 18-6-12 after the ewes graze out fields to try to keep quality regrowth coming back. I have also topped a few fields that were gone too far for the sheep to rectify without putting pressure on the lambs.

At the recent Grass 10 walk I attended, it was explained that for every 5.5% change in leaf content, it is equal to a one-unit change in digestibility. It was also noted that poorly managed swards can fall to 60% leaf during the reproductive or stemmy period and that well grazed-out swards, which are grazed to between 4cm and 4.5cm, will contain a higher leaf level and therefore have a better feeding value.

I have my first draft of lambs going to the factory this week, which after checking my records from last year, is a week earlier than then.

I have drafted all male lambs over 40kg with a good covering of flesh. Given that the lambs are still suckling the ewes I will be expecting a kill-out percentage of about 48% to 50%, which will equate to a 19kg or 20kg carcase.

I will start weaning the ewes from early next week as the lambs are now coming up on 12 to 14 weeks of age. At this point, the ewes and lambs are competing for the same amount of grass DM per day. Allowing the lambs to take the choice grass ahead of the ewes will enable them to grow to their potential.

The ewes can clean out the fields after them as they only require maintenance at this point in time.

As the weather has been inclement, I have used this time to begin a bit of destruction here on the farm. To avoid the rain, I have begun to remove some dividing walls in some of the outhouses to try and maximise the space and enable it to be more user friendly for next spring. At the moment, I am trying to fix up the shed so that I can use it for my pet lambs when they are being reared next year.