Finally, we’ve got some respite from the past few months of constant wind and rain. The weather for the past 10 days, along with the Six Nations victory, has been very well received. Ground conditions have improved well enough for grazing and some slurry spreading to get under way in earnest.

Soil temperatures are just shy of 10oC and grass is starting to respond, especially where fertilizer has been applied. While the 25 units of urea that were applied in February got well washed in, it is delivering grass now, especially on reseeded ground.

Slurry spreading started earlier in the week. It’s the latest start to slurry spreading here for a number of years – the usual practice is to cover all bare ground in late January/early February before growth takes off, so the new grass doesn’t get tainted. However, the rain has dictated otherwise this year.

Instead, a number of silage fields that were earmarked for early slurry have had to be skipped over as they have a bit too much grass on them by now. I’ll just have to wait until after they’ve been grazed off and are ready to save for silage in April.

All the yearling stock were weighed last week to see how they had performed since they were last weighed 70 days ago in early January. The lightest bulls and the majority of the yearling heifers were let out to grass afterwards.

The results were varied. Bad news first. The weight gain in the heifers ranged from a low of zero to a high of 55kg. On average, the heifers gained 21kg, which translates to only 0.3kg/day. I’m afraid I have to take full responsibility for this poor performance.

My plan was to winter them as cheaply as possible on good quality silage only. I then intended to get them back to grass in the first half of February before they suffered any real setback. Unfortunately, my gamble hasn’t paid off. Hopefully they’ll respond well to being let out and will make up some of the lost ground over the spring.

The bulls, on the other hand, did much better. They had been separated into three different bunches based on weight and were on three different levels of feeding. The lightest group were getting 74DMD silage and 3kg of ration daily. They gained 69kg on average over the 70 days, just shy of 1kg/day. This group, mostly 11 to 12 months old, have gone back to grass for the time being. I’ll see how the trade is in a month or two before I decide what to do with them.

The bunch of middle weights were getting the same 74DMD silage ad lib, plus 4.5kg ration per day. They gained an average of 99kg over the same period, giving them an average daily liveweight gain of 1.41kg/day, which I was satisfied with. This group has an average weight of 521kg and will be built up and finished over the next 60 to 70 days.

Ad-lib feed

The heaviest bulls that were on ad-lib feed did the best work. Individual gains for this bunch ranged from 86kg to 155kg over the period, or 1.23kg to 2.21kg per day. In fact, three bulls – two Belgian Blues and a Limousin – achieved over 2kg per day, which I didn’t expect.

Most of these bulls are now fit for slaughter and are exactly what the factories were telling farmers they required, i.e. bulls under 16 months at 380-400kg carcase weight with an adequate fat score. But, true to form, they have now moved the goalposts and are once again holding their suppliers to ransom. Will this latest crisis be the straw that breaks the camel’s back?