Life here has been very hectic with autumn calving and parlour construction. Yes, it is happening at last – we are building a new milking parlour and collecting yard, on land next to the old one. After two years of planning, which included a six-month delay, seeking grant aid which eventually yielded far less than expected.

The system over here seems to favour administration over realisation, if you get my drift.

We opted to construct the parlour and collecting yard ourselves, which is proving interesting, but more of that later.

I decided not to apply fertiliser in August as we always dry up and I fail to see it having any effect on grass growth. We have now applied the remaining fertiliser, but have yet to see any effect, so the cows are on 50 per cent silage, and we are expecting brewer's grains any day. But cows are not milking well. The silage being fed is quite late-made. Because of the excessive grass growth this year, we kept being offered more and more grass at less and less cost. Unfortunately, this late silage is at the front of the pit.

Calving season

We have just finished calving the heifers and are halfway through the cows. Fortunately, I listened to "the other end of the table" and served the heifers a month early, which allowed us to concentrate on them before the cows started calving. We now put the heifers in calf to Aberdeen Angus which seem to yield a very good price, another plus for the other end of the table.

We have just had three men and machines in, including a Himac, for three days. We emptied the strawy manure from the young stock barns and built a horseshoe shape on sloping ground, and then emptied the contents of the slurry pit into the middle. This is our doughnut, which will quietly ferment into some very well-textured weed free-manure for next year.

Weather woes

Getting last year's dung on to the fields is quite a challenge, because when it is dry the cows are out, and when it is wet it's too wet to spread.

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