I hate cutting the lawn. It’s enough to grow grass for a living, never mind having to look after more of it as part of the house chores. My lawnmower broke down in October and was far down the repairs list at the time so it was only the early days of January before I got around to cutting the lawn.

With the exception of a few days, most air temperatures in 2017 have been between 10°C and 14°C. Grass growth on this patch of ground has been very strong and was thankfully replicated on the grazing platform.

The speed at which grass on the lawn grows is something I have always noted. There is high clover content and a bit of vetch appears at times but aside from these legumes pulling in atmospheric nitrogen that’s all it receives in terms of fertiliser. Observing that and our farm accounts put dad and myself thinking. Back in 2012, there was €218/ha spent on fertiliser.

We set out to see if we could reduce this figure yet maintain production. It proved to be a test of our farming skills. Yes, we’re taking chances but if you don’t try a few crazy things you’ll end up in the same position you’ve always been in. Slurry was used almost exclusively until the end of March and urea was used until early July. The fertiliser spend for 2016 will be below €100/ha. Soil sampling every two years was the insurance that allowed us take these chances.

I made an error when I wrote two weeks ago and said whole-farm artificial fertiliser use was down to 11.75t. While putting the figures together for the profit monitor, I realised I had just counted up what was in my diary and not accounted for 2.5t spread by contractor on an outfarm. So apologies for that.

With the mild winter we are having I’m left wondering when is the cold or wet snap going to come. Ground conditions are relatively good at present and nature has a funny way of balancing out in terms of weather so I will start training in the cull heifers to graze by day and get them growing while current conditions prevail.

Paddocks where these heifers are were closed earlier than usual so have very high covers of grass. It is the priority area to get grazed first. We’ll pay for our nice mild spell between now and May so I might as well take a chance with light stock. Procrastination has no part in grass management.

Heat recording

Replacement heifers are bulling away at the moment so any heats are being recorded on a whiteboard where they are housed. They spend their winters in an old converted dairy stall, not perfect in terms of ventilation but it has worked well for over 30 years in its current state. It holds 21 yearlings and is a super place for interacting with them.

Spending an odd few minutes just standing in the pen with them pays off when you are dealing with them as cows. They are on ad-lib silage and are receiving 10kg of meal between them a day, more a treat than anything. It’s a far cry from 2012 when they used to get 45kg. Madness when I think of it now.

They will get their first BVD shot in the next few days. It is welcome news to see that the ICBF are aiming to get genomic tags out to farms in early spring to avoid extra work rounding up stock for tagging.