Why we chose this time of year is because our farming calendar runs from August to September each year. This usually coincides with animals starting to be slaughtered and stores being bought to replace them. We also are continuing to kill lambs so this is also included in the performance monitoring.

It’s not so much performance monitoring but more so, what worked well this year, what we were happy with and what areas do we need to improve in.

Items on the list that worked well for us this year were the early turnout of livestock. This is the single most important event on our calendar. This is not a reckless approach but a calculated one. Small numbers of bullocks are let out each week. This allows us to vary turnout and work within the constraints of the weather.

This brings me onto the next item on the list that we have a black mark against us on. The selection of our grass species is poor. All of the grazing block is old grasses. This really lets the paddock system down especially in the shoulders of the year. After the first grazing the grass is really slow to kick start growth. This can leave us tight at times in April. A plan is there and is being implemented but it is a long term strategy rather than a quick fix.

To compound this slow kick start in growth is our soil fertility. It’s something we thought we had been correcting but a very in-depth soil analysis recently suggested otherwise.

I had been spreading compound fertiliser on all applications but I was only really scratching the surface. My potash levels are 350kg per hectare below were they need to be which was quite a shocking figure. Correcting soil fertility can be an expensive exercise but spending more on Nitrogen that’s not working and not growing enough grass is also expensive so that’s an issue that I need to face head on.

Finally I thought it appropriate to add a comment about the farm safety after all the stories all week. I wouldn’t have room in this article for all my close scrapes but kicks from livestock rate high on the list for the most painful. It’s incredible to think that I and so many other people work in one of the most dangerous industries in the country. In my experience having worked on a number of farms and visited many also, is that farmers including myself can be our own worst enemy.