No two years are the same in farming, but this one is definitely different. Usually come mid-July the farm is positively heaving with grass, as silage aftermaths become available for grazing and the stocking density on the grazing ground is reduced – allowing the build-up of covers for autumn.

This year, however, I cannot see this being the case. While we can no longer say we haven’t had rain in over a month – as we did have some drizzle earlier in the week, the ground is crying out for water.

First-cut silage

First-cut is securely in the pit. It was done over two stints. The first half was cut in mid-June and the crop seemed to be lighter than in previous years, but then again it was cut earlier. The rest was cut the week after the Highland Show and these crops were quite good.

The best crop was a two-year-old sward that the sheep grazed last year. The multiple, intensive grazings meant the sward had tillered exceptionally well and was like a carpet when sowing fertiliser this spring.

Not cutting a reseed in the first year for silage allows the grass to establish properly and means when you do cut it in the second year you get a much better crop. Also the sheep benefit from the clean grazing in the first year of the reseed. This has been done again this year, with the sheep grazing first-year grass, following winter barley.

Overall we are not far behind normal first-cut yields, but we have 65 acres lined up for a second cut, the rest of the first-cut ground will be available for grazing.

Cows and calves at Cranna.

Grazing under pressure

One group of spring cows and calves were getting tight for grass, so they were swapped with a group of autumn calvers. These cows are in good condition and while the calves are still on them, they will be producing a lot less milk than the spring-calved cows at this stage. We have put a creep gate in for the calves to be able to graze ahead of the cows, further reducing the pressure on them. To entice the calves into the next field we started feeding some concentrate in a trough once a day.

We had to start grazing a spring reseed that we thought we would get a light cut of silage off with the rest of the second cut, but if growth doesn’t pick up we may have to forfeit this.

Sheep

Weaning took place this week, 480 lambs from 330 ewes to the tup gives us a weaning percentage of 145%. This is heading in the right direction, but we still see room for improvement over the coming years. We increased numbers greatly last year and as these ewes settle into the farm they should be able to rear more lambs.

We started lambing on 1 April this year, a fortnight later than last year, yet the lambs are every bit as good – if not better. With an average lambing date of 14 April, this means lambs are weaned at 95 days.

Last year they did well up until the end of June and then the wet weather came and they stood still for nearly six weeks. This year, hopefully, we can keep them moving and get them out of the system that bit earlier.

We are quite heavily stocked here so we need as much grass as possible for the ewes come tupping time, so the less lambs on-farm at that stage, the better. Ewes should be the priority at that stage of the year. Not having enough grass for ewes at tupping will lead to a reduced lamb crop for next year.

Right now it’s the lambs that are getting priority. Removing the ewes will significantly reduce grass demand on the sheep grazing.

At 100 days old, less than 20% of the lambs’ diet comes from the ewes’ milk. Leaving the lambs on the ewes would mean they are in direct competition with each other for the best grazing. Weaning the ewes now will also reduce the grazing demand by 20%, as they can be moved to tighter pasture to dry off and then be used to clean up paddocks after priority stock has grazed them.

Overall the ewes are in good condition, there were about 10 ewes that we have pulled out with udders gone wrong in spring and these will be culled straight away. There is no point having these on-farm, eating valuable dry matter, when they won’t be going to the tup later in the year.

Every mouth less on the farm at this stage can make a big difference. With this in mind, we have sold 14 cull cows in the last week. These are either cows that were not in calf or lost a calf in spring.

Ewes and lambs prior to weaning.

Winter forage

An 18-acre field that needs to be reseeded has been earmarked for sowing redstart in the next couple of weeks, or as soon as we get some moisture back in the ground. This will carry stock further into winter before housing. Every day we can shorten the indoor winter period is a cost saving. This crop will be grazed by cows and maybe some lambs – if there are still some on the farm at that stage.

We also have 20 acres of neeps for the sheep for winter grazing. They were sown in the dry weather and took a long time to come through, but are finally getting there.

The light rain this week has made a big difference already to them, so hopefully we can get some more quite soon.

In the past this was used mainly by lambs for finishing, but as we get lambs away earlier we can now use it for the ewes in mid-pregnancy to allow the grass parks a rest. Fields that you want to graze first in spring for turning out ewes and lambs need a 100-day rest during the winter to recover.

The next few weeks will be busy with drafting lambs, weaning the autumn calves and, hopefully, it looks like it will be an early harvest.