There is little or no stem appearing in the swards of Astonenergy or Dunluce at the moment but some of the other varieties are beginning to push up stem even at very low covers.

Grass cover on the farm is now 180kg per cow (too high for high growth rates in mid-season) so two paddocks have been skipped for round bales. With rain forecast on Saturday this type of growth rate should continue.

Breeding

Breeding continues and the vasectomised bulls are now in with the milking cows to help identify the cows that repeat. Four vasectomised bulls are on duty while the other four are rested and then swapped in and out.

Milk continues to flow and the latest result shows the cows milking 2.01kg of milk solids per cow (23.5 litres at 4.53% fat and 3.79% protein on grass only and no meal. There are still about 40 cows on once a day milking. Mins and vits are given in the water. There has been a problem with vacuum in the parlour so the SCC has increased slightly of late. The last reading came in at 177,000 cells/ml.

Reseeds

The reseeds are looking okay, but needless to say they could do with a drop of rain. Seedling weeds are developing but neither the weeds or the grass seeds are strong enough yet to get the sprayer out.

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Watch: Grass growth explosion on the Tullamore farm