I never imagined that I would have cows housed until May, but the weather this spring has made ground conditions difficult to manage. Ground conditions have improved over the past week and I finally have all cattle out at grass. Grass growth has increased to 47kg DM/ha this week and the average farm cover is 678kgDM/ha (6cm), which is giving me approximately 14 days ahead at present. Thankfully, I had enough silage to last until 11 May to feed cattle.

I have managed to graze 40 weanlings since 10 March, along with 125 ewes and their lambs. The sheep have finished lambing and were grazing my silage ground which is now closed off. I hope to cut around 12-15 June, weather permitting. Growing conditions are improving and, if a spell of good weather did arrive, it would definitely improve silage yields in a short space of time.

I spread slurry on silage ground at closing and have applied straight CAN. Some silage ground received nitrogen and slurry back in February, so I have only spread 80 units of CAN on this ground as there should still be residual nitrogen present. The remaining silage ground has received 90 units of CAN. In total, I am cutting 37 acres in the first cut.

I weaned the cows in late February as calves were six to seven months old at this stage. This definitely helped to stretch silage stocks as intakes were restricted. I am happy with cow condition at present. I scanned 48 cows and heifers that were inseminated and I have 43 in calf, which I am happy with. Empty cows were sold live in the ring. The weanlings will be sold in July and are eating 1kg of rolled barley to help performance.

I had great assistance this spring from a student, Thomas Maguire. He was a great help with all farming duties. It definitely made things a lot easier for me to tend to other daily management tasks.