One of the biggest changes that we have made since the start of the project is tightening of the calving interval. Last year we calved down in 15 weeks, with a calving spread of just over 13 weeks expected this year.

This has simplified the system greatly, which is especially evident throughout the winter period when we have fewer batches of cattle on-farm – making feeding much easier. It also means we have not sold any young stock since last September. Usually we would be drafting yearlings from November through to April.

While for cashflow purposes it might be nice to have sold some by now, on the other hand it is comforting to still have over 100 cattle on-farm to sell over the coming months. We will start to draft the heaviest cattle for sale from February onwards.

All young stock were treated for lungworm in early December using a pour-on product from the Group III clear wormers.

However, there were still some coughing in the shed lately, so we have gone back in with a Group II yellow drench in the last week.

The stock are thriving quite well, but hopefully once they are fully cleared out we will see them push on once again for the last few weeks prior to sale.

When you are producing stores you cannot afford to not have cattle thriving. The aim is to have cattle hitting the ring at between 420kg and 450kg.

Cows

The cows are currently on ad-lib ammonia-treated straw, with a small amount of silage and draff making up the rest of the diet.

This is our first year feeding draff and we are finding it very good.

Silage stocks were reduced significantly last year due to the prolonged dry spell, so the draff is filling the gap just nicely.

Another change at Arnage this year was growing over 40 acres of hybrid forage brassica

Silage and draff allocation will be increased in the coming days in the run up to calving, to ensure cows have sufficient energy.

Another change at Arnage this year was growing over 40 acres of hybrid forage brassica.

This was direct-drilled into winter barley stubble. At the start of September it didn’t look to be much of a crop, but it is amazing how well the stubble turnips filled out right into December.

We grazed a batch of cows out on this crop up until two weeks ago, when the weather forecast was bad.

As it happened we could have left them another week, but we were delighted to keep them out for as long as we did.

It has been a huge saving on both feed and bedding.

While growing this crop was a preventative measure for this winter, given the poor silage yields, it is something we will continue to do as the cost of keeping a suckler cow indoors for over six months a year simply doesn’t add up.

Sheep

The ewes are currently strip-grazing the rest of the fodder crop. There should be enough there to hold them until 10 March – about three weeks prior to lambing when they will return to grass.

Feeding low-DM forage crops in late pregnancy can cause issues with prolapse.

Scanning took place last week and we were quite pleased with the results. Overall, we are in the low 180s.

Our sheep enterprise needs to do better, but we see the potential in it

This is up from last year and heading in the right direction. We are currently changing the ewe type on-farm to a Mule ewe.

We lamb everything outdoors so they will be more suited to this system than the Suffolk-cross ewes we ran here in the past.

While it is good to see the scanning percentage increasing, this is only of any benefit if it translates to an increased weaning percentage.

Our sheep enterprise needs to do better, but we see the potential in it.