We got the last 25 acres of first-cut silage harvested last week and given the weather since then, it is a major relief.

Last weekend I was out spreading fertiliser on fields that had been cut earlier in May and it was clear that conditions have already deteriorated.

I had to leave some sections untouched as I was marking the ground.

Considering the amount of rainfall we have received over the past week, I am very grateful to have all the silage safely in the pit, as damage to the ground would have been unavoidable under current conditions.

Growth

It feels like the same story every year, but I am finding grass management particularly difficult this season.

During the week of Balmoral Show, grass growth rates were only 67kg dry matter per hectare (DM/ha), which was around half of what we would normally expect at that time of year. I decided to feed silage during this period to ensure we did not end up in a grass deficit too early in the season.

Thankfully, air temperatures increased the following week to more typical levels for the time of year and grass growth quickly returned to normal.

As a result, I have now been left with surplus grass. Although I have skipped a few grazings, I am in the difficult position of not being able to get a dry day to take this grass out as bales.

I could also remove more grass than currently planned, but I am wary of leaving myself too tight for grazing because, with the current weather outlook, I have no idea when we will get an opportunity to bale it and bring it back into the grazing rotation.

Grass has also started to head out. Unfortunately, I did not get any pre-mowing completed when the weather was good. I definitely need to carry out some form of mechanical sward correction this rotation.

If weather conditions allow, I will try to pre-mow otherwise, I will be topping grass after grazing to remove heavy covers around dung pats and any headed grass.

Milk solids

I am quite pleased that milk protein has remained consistent throughout the year, sitting between 3.45% and 3.50%. Butterfat, however, fell from 4.50% during the winter months to 3.90% in May.

I thought feeding silage in the middle of May might increase butterfat levels, but I did not see any noticeable change during the week we were feeding it.

However, we were feeding third-cut silage, so it may have been too low in fibre to have much effect on butterfat levels.

This past week I have also put out a bale of straw in the feeding passage, which the cows have been eating during milkings – some days they eat more than others.

Whether it is the straw, stemmier grass, or simply the autumn-calving cows approaching the end of their lactation (or possibly a combination of all these three), butterfat has increased over the past week to 4.26%.

The spring-calving cows have held their production well and are currently averaging 33 litres per cow per day. The autumn-calving cows, however, have dropped again and are now at a daily average of 23 litres per cow.

At this rate, I do not think I will have too much difficulty drying cows off in August and September, although thankfully these animals performed very well during the winter period.

This grazing season has not been easy on them, with a number of diet changes and prolonged periods of heavy rainfall.

While there are many things we cannot control as farmers, the weather is perhaps the one factor that has the greatest impact on us all.

Here’s hoping for plenty of dry, warm and sunny weather over the months ahead.