Silage season is coming around the corner quickly this year. Grass growth on the farm has started to take off in the last couple of weeks and we are now at 72kg DM/ha/day, while demand is currently at 46kg DM/ha/day.

This has allowed me to drop out about 10 fields from the grazing rotation for silage and I will no doubt have to drop more in the coming weeks. I have spread one bag of 18-6-12 per acre across the grazing area on the farm in order to keep grass moving on in them while the others are closed for silage.

The good grass this year has meant that none of the ewes or lambs have needed to be supplemented

I will continue to use the hoggets as a flying mob, cleaning out paddocks properly so as not to compromise the milking ability of the ewes rearing the lambs by forcing them. The good grass this year has meant that none of the ewes or lambs have needed to be supplemented once they left the sheds this spring.

I plan to dose and weigh the lambs from the two Central Progeny Test (CPT) groups of lambs this week. This will be the first performance check of the year. Ideally, they should be doing 300g/hd/day or better and it is a good indicator as to how well the ewes are lactating as much of their weight gain up to now is from their mothers’ milk. From about seven weeks of age, lambs are starting to incorporate grass into their diets.

Reseeding

We are also planning on getting the fields reseeded that had the Redstart in last autumn/winter. They have been sprayed off to kill any weeds that had germinated over the spring and this should provide us with a very clean reseed.

This year, it is more important than ever to get very few weeds in the reseed as I am putting plantain into the grass seed mixture.

Unfortunately, there are no post-emergence weed sprays I know of available that are safe for spraying on reseeds that contain plantain

This will help to bring a bit of biodiversity into the grazing swards here on the farm but, also, it is suggested that it benefits the sheep by increasing mineral nutrition, drought tolerance and it has anthelmintic properties. Unfortunately, there are no post-emergence weed sprays I know of available that are safe for spraying on reseeds that contain plantain. If we get the winter silage requirement saved early, I will probably take the opportunity to reseed some extra ground this year.

Audit

Last week, I underwent my Bord Bia audit for the farm. It was very straightforward and there were no issues on the day but it still took about one and a half to two hours to complete, despite already having filled in the online section in advance of the inspection.

It is great that we are gaining access to additional markets due to the work of Bord Bia but it is high time that the markets started giving something more back to us farmers for our time taken to participate in such schemes and not just the factories. The few extra pence given for being in it is all too often eroded by the extra time taken out of our already heavy workload to complete the inspection.

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