I hosted a visit by some agricultural science students from the Sacred Heart Secondary School, Clonakilty this week. They are taking part in a cattle rearing competition run by the Angus Producers Group.

I really enjoyed having such an enthusiastic group on the farm. I hope my answers were beneficial to them. It was very much the science side of things and the financial benefits from getting the basics right that they focused on. I loved the positivity of the group. As I've previously stated, attitudes - be they positive or negative - are infectious. I know which I prefer to have.

Challenged

One of the more enjoyable aspects of it was that they forced me to think and question myself a bit too. I always find those kind of visits the best. It's good to be challenged about what you do on a farm and why. It makes you say out loud the reasons why you do what you do.

Part of what I showed was the grazing rotation plan with the autumn grazing near completion and covers building nicely in the paddocks closed in October. These are the paddocks most convenient to the houses and weather permitting I hope to practice on-off grazing with these in February.

Stock bulls

At present the three stock bulls have been mixed and currently have a three acre paddock ahead of them. One of the groups of cows have another 10 days grazing in front of them. A group of 13 in-calf heifers are due to return at the start of the week and be housed.

They will be penned separately until calving time. Two in-calf heifers that were running with one group of cows will remain in the cow group. They're not going to challenge the older cows but would end up being bullied by their contemporaries if mixed there. It's not worth losing a calf in them at this stage. They were held in a different group for breeding as their sire was run with the heifers.

The key for myself will be to get into a routine for the winter in such a way as to keep workload to a minimum. The young stock will just have to be weighed monthly aside from feeding. While I'll have to wait till all cows are in before working out my time plan with them.