The first of this year’s pit silage was harvested on the home farm on 24 May. The remainder of the first-cut silage was harvested on the outfarms on 5 June.

On both occasions, the silage was harvested in ideal conditions after a 24-hour wilt, so it has the potential to be good-quality winter feed.

In an ideal scenario, all of the silage would have been harvested on the same date. However, the swards on the home farm have been reseeded in recent years, making them much more productive and responsive to fertiliser.

The home farm also received slurry at a much earlier date this spring, which was applied using an umbilical system.

Therefore, with earlier fertiliser and more productive swards, silage was ready for harvesting in late May and there was a good balance between grass quality and quantity when cut.

Reseeding

I am planning to get more reseeding carried out on some of my rented land this year in an effort to increase grass growth in early spring.

I am also carefully considering the cost and time benefits of using a specialist contractor to spread slurry on all of the silage ground during spring, compared with using my own equipment.

Getting slurry on to my land in early spring has major benefits for silage yields. Despite the poor growing conditions during April, the overall silage yields have been marginally ahead of last year for some fields.

I had the target of getting a full pit of first-cut silage and thankfully this has been achieved.

Silage yields were also boosted, with several grazing paddocks that had become too strong for grazing also being cut and ensiled in the clamp.

Slurry has been applied for second cut at a rate of 2,500 gallons per acre. On reseeded swards, this was topped up with three bags per acre of 27:4:4 with added sulphur. The less productive swards in need of reseeding received 2.5 bags per acre of 27:4:4 plus sulphur. I am aiming to have all of the second cut harvested by late July.

Options for grazing management

Conditions have been excellent for grass growth over the past month and I have been able to take out a number of paddocks as baled silage. To date, I have made 45 silage bales.

The most recent grass walk is indicating that I will need to take more paddocks out for silage to control sward quality in the weeks ahead.

The silage bales made from the grazing block should be extremely good in terms of feed value, making them ideal to feed back to the autumn-born bulls when they are housed for finishing in late summer.

Having the option to feed bales at this stage of the year means I do not have to open the silage pit for a small number of cattle.

Despite taking paddocks out for silage, some pre-grazing covers are still higher than I would like. But with dry conditions, grass utilisation is good, even on the swards with higher opening covers.

I am reluctant to take too many paddocks out at once, as reducing the average farm cover below 2,000kg DM/ha can limit the growth potential across the grazing block.

As an alternative to baling surplus grass, I will also pre-mow paddocks with heavier covers if the weather conditions are favourable. Swards are mowed down to 4cm and this helps to control sward quality in the next rotation.

Calves are now eating more grass, which is increasing grazing demand. Therefore, removing too much grass for silage at one time could quickly turn a grazing surplus into a deficit.

Rebuilding the spring-calving herd

At housing last autumn, I had 39 cows and heifers scanned in-calf for this spring. However, one cow aborted her calf and a further six cows and two heifers were lost to TB.

This left me with 30 cows calving this spring and, thankfully, I have all 30 cows calved with 31 live calves on the ground.

I did lose one calf due to a twisted calving bed, but two sets of twins helped to make up for this loss. Calving started on 18 February and finished on 21 April, a period of nine weeks.

Breeding started on 14 May, with all cows and heifers served to AI, which I carry out myself. Cows are being served to natural heats.

I have 29 out of the 30 cows to breed, along with 14 maiden heifers. By 18 June, there were 23 cows and two heifers served.

The remaining six cows will be synchronised this week. The heifers were synchronised and served to AI on 8 and 9 June using Simmental (SI2449), Limousin (LM4217 and On-dit) and Hereford..

Heifers are being bred to traditional beef breeds, with the focus on using sires that are good on calving ease and shorter gestation length.

The autumn herd consists of 29 cows and heifers. They are currently grazing on older swards and rough land, as well as being used to clean out paddocks after the autumn-born bulls.

There are 11 autumn bulls in total and they are grazing on top-quality swards to ensure high levels of performance.

Forcing bulls to clean out swards tight to the ground can lead to them becoming unsettled, reducing daily liveweight gain.

Whereas using dry cows to clean out swards fully after the bulls is a much better option. Bulls can be moved on to the next paddock of high-quality grass, maintaining performance.

In addition, dry cows have a lower feed requirement and cow body condition can be maintained where they are being used to clean out paddocks.

Autumn cows were treated with a fly repellent at turnout and will get a second treatment in July, along with a fluke and worm drench.

I have had issues in the past with lungworm in cows during July and August. Therefore, this treatment was included in my animal health plan after discussions with my vet.

Read more

Don’t neglect nitrogen top up