The past week brought a huge sense of relief around here after we finally got the all-clear on the TB test. It’s always a stressful time waiting on results, so it was a major weight off the mind for everyone here once we got the green light.

With that behind us, attention has turned back fully to stock sales and breeding. I’m sending the weaned bull calves to the mart this weekend and hopefully trade stays strong. They’ve done well overall and are moving on in good shape. I’ll likely send the remainder the following week and then get the heifer calves off the contract rearers. At the minute we’re still carrying over three LU/ha with all calves on the farm, and they are in three different groups, so easing that pressure will help greatly from a grass management point of view.

The breeding bulls have also started to move, with five sold already. They were fertility tested three weeks ago and thankfully all came through very well. Buyers are asking more questions around fertility and health status now, so having all testing done and paperwork in order definitely helps when trying to move stock. They all have a high health EBI figure and are easy calving for heifers.

The replacement heifers were AI’d last week using sexed semen, so fingers crossed the conception rates hold up well. Conditions for breeding have actually been ideal. We’ve had good dry weather since breeding started and cows are showing strong heats. We have over 70% of the herd served in the first 14 days, which I’d be very happy with. Getting cows cycling and submitted early is half the battle in compact calving systems.

Milk production has been steady enough. Solids are holding very consistently at around 4.50% fat and 3.70% protein, which is encouraging. Yield itself has been fluctuating a bit from collection to collection, ranging from 26 to 29 litres. Grass quality is excellent, and graze outs are excellent, so maybe I am pinching the cows a bit on their final grazing in the paddocks. It’s a fine line between maintaining residuals and not affecting production.

Grass growth dipped back slightly last week to around 70kg DM/ha/day, but demand is still only sitting at 61kg DM/ha/day so we’re comfortably ahead for now. Average farm cover per cow was sitting bang on target at 185kg DM/LU. I took out three paddocks for bales last week to keep control of quality and avoid covers getting too strong. Cows are now entering covers around 1,300kg DM/ha and I want to hold them around that level and avoid pre-grazing covers going beyond 1,600kg DM/ha if possible.

Grass quality at this stage of the year is too valuable to lose and once covers get too heavy it becomes difficult to pull things back again without compromising performance. Taking out surplus paddocks early usually pays dividends later in the summer.

On the animal health side, we hoof-trimmed 20 cows two weeks ago that had been identified through mobility scoring. Ten of those needed blocks fitted, although none were actually clinically lame, which was positive. The biggest issue we’re seeing is thin soles, which is disappointing this early in the grazing season.

I suspect the very wet spring, combined with trying to keep cows outdoors every day, has probably caused extra wear on roadways and softer hooves than normal. But in the meantime we have had two cows go lame since with “drops” caused by stone punctures.

There are two paddocks earmarked for reseeding as well, but I’ll probably hold off for another few weeks.

Overall, things are moving in the right direction. Breeding has started strongly, grass quality is excellent, and getting the TB clear has removed a major concern. If we can maintain grass quality and keep cows healthy through the next few weeks, hopefully we’ll set ourselves up well for the rest of the season.