How do you get the maximum value from summer grass on a cattle farm? This is an age-old dilemma but this year, it’s acute. While we always buy the bulk of the weanlings in the late summer/autumn, I inevitably do not have enough shed space in the December/January period to hold all the cattle we need to have on hand for the following year.

There are two choices – you can buy an extra few loads in the autumn and have them wandering around outside, losing weight and cutting up the land. I have found bull weanlings particularly susceptible to hardship so we have given up that practise though I must admit I have not tried to winter stock on a catch crop such as rape or kale.

The other option is to buy in the February period when the vast bulk of the beef is gone and there is space in the sheds. We were midway through buying this year when the trade ignited due to the opening up of the Turkish trade. It’s great to see this trade for young, live cattle – margins are too thin in suckling and whatever comes to lift them should be welcomed, but nevertheless, the increase in price, relative to the Irish beef trade, meant I could see no sensible return and so I stopped buying.

We will undoubtedly have surplus grass. We already have quite a bit of silage over from last year so while we will make our usual first cut, the only options available that I can see are to do more zero grazing to supply the cattle on heavy feed in the sheds and so, cut down to some extent on the meal but this can only go so far as we need to get an acceptable finish at 21 months.