This time last year we were battening down the hatches in preparation for The Beast from the East. This year it almost feels like we’re living in a Mediterranean climate! I know the less optimistic among us are still waiting for the winter to arrive, but here is hoping that this little hint of spring we are experiencing is a taste of things to come.
Good ground conditions
My calves are at grass by day for the past week, as the majority of them have never been out before. They are taking to grazing very well and are actually rifling through grass. Ground conditions on my drier ground are very good at the minute so I decided to let out a small batch of heifers as well.
I want to try and graze off some silage ground close to the yard so I can get some slurry out. I haven’t tightened these heifers up to much yet and they are running over approximately 3ac. If ground conditions continue to stay good, I’ll probably tighten them up into smaller paddocks in a couple of days.
A close inspection of some of my mains boundary fences has identified a need for some maintenance work – a broken strainer here, a broken post there along with a number of missing insulators. This means I’m going to have to get the post driver on and spend a day doing a bit of tidying.
When you do manage to get at it, fencing is one of those jobs that has something quite therapeutic about it
I always seem to struggle to find time for these sorts of jobs, there always seems to be something more urgent to do. Yet when you do manage to get at it, fencing is one of those jobs that has something quite therapeutic about it.
It’s been a few years since we’ve done any internal field hedge cutting. I have a few spots were the hedge is growing well out over the mains wire, not doing much harm at the minute, but when the leaves start to come on, it can fairly cut down on the power. With only one week left in the hedge cutting season, the panic is on to get this sort of work completed.
Breeding
The breeding season is progressing nicely, I’ll continue to AI until the end of the month and then probably let the bull in. I have five cows that haven’t showed heat since calving, one is an old cow that I’m not going to inseminate anyway and two are heifers. One of these heifers is probably a little thinner than I would like, but the rest are in reasonably good body condition.
I decided to get my AI man to handle all and see if he could detect any issues. He told me that one of the offenders had cycled but I must have missed her. The rest in his opinion needed some treatment because their ovaries seemed dormant. We started them on a synchronisation programme, using prids and two injections, and will aim to inseminate them on day 9.
The old cow that I’d decided to cull was bulling the next day with no treatment – Murphy’s law!
Read more
Farmer writes: slurry ban and dreaming of another good summer
Farmer Writes: under or over 16 months?
This time last year we were battening down the hatches in preparation for The Beast from the East. This year it almost feels like we’re living in a Mediterranean climate! I know the less optimistic among us are still waiting for the winter to arrive, but here is hoping that this little hint of spring we are experiencing is a taste of things to come.
Good ground conditions
My calves are at grass by day for the past week, as the majority of them have never been out before. They are taking to grazing very well and are actually rifling through grass. Ground conditions on my drier ground are very good at the minute so I decided to let out a small batch of heifers as well.
I want to try and graze off some silage ground close to the yard so I can get some slurry out. I haven’t tightened these heifers up to much yet and they are running over approximately 3ac. If ground conditions continue to stay good, I’ll probably tighten them up into smaller paddocks in a couple of days.
A close inspection of some of my mains boundary fences has identified a need for some maintenance work – a broken strainer here, a broken post there along with a number of missing insulators. This means I’m going to have to get the post driver on and spend a day doing a bit of tidying.
When you do manage to get at it, fencing is one of those jobs that has something quite therapeutic about it
I always seem to struggle to find time for these sorts of jobs, there always seems to be something more urgent to do. Yet when you do manage to get at it, fencing is one of those jobs that has something quite therapeutic about it.
It’s been a few years since we’ve done any internal field hedge cutting. I have a few spots were the hedge is growing well out over the mains wire, not doing much harm at the minute, but when the leaves start to come on, it can fairly cut down on the power. With only one week left in the hedge cutting season, the panic is on to get this sort of work completed.
Breeding
The breeding season is progressing nicely, I’ll continue to AI until the end of the month and then probably let the bull in. I have five cows that haven’t showed heat since calving, one is an old cow that I’m not going to inseminate anyway and two are heifers. One of these heifers is probably a little thinner than I would like, but the rest are in reasonably good body condition.
I decided to get my AI man to handle all and see if he could detect any issues. He told me that one of the offenders had cycled but I must have missed her. The rest in his opinion needed some treatment because their ovaries seemed dormant. We started them on a synchronisation programme, using prids and two injections, and will aim to inseminate them on day 9.
The old cow that I’d decided to cull was bulling the next day with no treatment – Murphy’s law!
Read more
Farmer writes: slurry ban and dreaming of another good summer
Farmer Writes: under or over 16 months?
SHARING OPTIONS