Michael McDonald's youngstock finally went to grass last week. Thinner cows have been out at grass full-time since St Patrick's Day and cows in better condition are going to grass during the day and coming indoors during the night. Michael’s new slatted shed provides their accommodation.

“We completed the job in December and it has been some help. A group of 30, including the bull, is overnighting in it at the moment. They’re getting a bale of hay between them every night when they’re coming in. It’s old hay but I’m glad to have it. The shed has been a serious help this winter, both as a means of housing animals and slurry storage. We’ll hopefully get the lie-back completed ahead of calving this year.”

Slatted tank during construction

The completed shed

Michael's shed, during and after construction

I asked Michael whether the national fodder shortage had affected him.

“We had enough here. We ran tight alright, but I put stock out regardless of the weather. I had 40 cows out on 12 and 24 hour paddocks – if we hadn’t been able to keep them out we would’ve ran out. Grazing animals were doing a small bit of damage, but as the pictures show it was recovering quickly, particularly since we started getting more heat,” he said.

Since last Saturday the weather has picked up and a lot of stock has gone out. We look okay, the weather is good and the grass is growing. We have 20 to 30 bales left over,” Michael said.

There were seven days between these pictures taken of the same paddock in mid-April

There were seven days between these pictures taken of the same paddock

Over the weekend, Michael was able to get most of his farm fertilised.

“Last week the farm was very wet but there was good drying towards the end of the week and the spreader was able to travel. We were able to agitate and get some slurry out over the weekend too. That was a huge relief, we were tight in that regard. I had been able to pump some slurry into the new tank before but we needed to get some out,” he commented.

Michael has 80 cows to calve in nine weeks from July. He was the most profitable weanling seller in the BETTER farm beef programme in 2017, recording a gross margin/ha of €639 across his 60ha holding. He aims to sell a 400kg weanling for €1,000 in early-summer.

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