Weather has dominated recent events with the unsettled conditions making planning ahead almost impossible. We finally managed to get the third-cut grass silage into the pit last weekend which was a fortnight later than planned.

It was put in on top of whole crop and ideally they should have been ensiled at the same time, however we had to cover the pit after the whole crop was in due to the rain. After seeing the battering Texas has had over the last week, perhaps we should not complain too much.

It is a few years since we have made whole crop but with the spring barley being undersown and the grass looking good underneath, we decided to put it in the pit.

Combining the barley is not a problem but it can sometimes be difficult to get the grassy straw baled dry and we did not want to kill the grass underneath by leaving it lying for any length of time.

We are feeding this year’s silage to the cows. To begin with this was just second-cut but now includes first- and second-cut. The cows’ dung was a little bit loose, but with the addition of first-cut, this now looks much better. After silage analysis, we may need to adjust the ration. Milk yield is averaging 32-33 litres per day but with milk quality of 3.65% fat and 3.1% protein, there could be improvements made.

After a three-month break I am now back inseminating cows and maiden heifers. The rest period is to tighten our calving pattern to reduce the amount of milk in the spring and produce more in the late summer and autumn when we get a higher price for the milk. The heifers have been brought inside and are at a rented steading three miles from home.

We installed self-locking yokes a couple of years ago and I go down twice a day to feed and AI them. Tail paint is used to aid heat detection. They get two chances with sexed semen before using conventional semen; any problem breeders will then be inseminated with British Blue semen. We choose a beef sire that it easy-calving, has a short gestation period and good conformation, and have not had to help many heifers or cows to calve.

When choosing a dairy sire we want a good-type bull particularly for legs, feet and udders, with high pins and short teats being immediately discounted. Positive percentages for fat and protein are a high priority as is a low cell count. Perhaps it is no surprise that after this selection process we have a short list of bulls to choose from and once bloodlines and inbreeding are considered it will be reduced again.

We had the classifier here from Holstein UK this week when we hope that breeding decisions made over the past few years will be reflected in the inspection results, it is also good to get an independent view of your cows.

A pleasing six cows were Excellent (including three first-time Excellents) and eight cows Very Good. None of the heifers were classed Very Good this time but hopefully they will go on to improve and may achieve it in subsequent lactations.