If things are going according to plan, July tends to be a lazy enough month on the farm.

Try to keep plenty of grass in front of cows and flies away from them. That’s about the height of it!

Thankfully I haven’t had a case of summer mastitis in a few years, but it’s always a constant battle. I use garlic buckets and pour-ons, but none are fool-proof.

Cows sucking calves are usually not too bad, but maiden heifers can be a disaster.

There is nothing more annoying than a maiden heifer losing a quarter or two, before she even calves for the first time. A lot of her genetic potential is just wiped out straight away. She may breed the best calf in the world, but if she can’t feed it, what use is she?

I’m also trying to catch up on a few routine jobs, when things are quiet. There’s always a bit of fencing to do, replacing posts and insulators in the electric fence and of course the slatted sheds need to be washed out, a job I always relish. Not.

Teagasc had two groups of green cert students on the farm a couple of weeks back, so there was a bit of a general tidy up done for that. I got the concrete around the sheds washed and the sheds themselves got a bit of a hosing down, but I couldn’t say they were washed.

As far as I’m aware, I’m finished with visitors for the summer. As I have nothing putting pressure on me to finish the job, I’ll probably still be contemplating starting to wash come 1 October, but hopefully not.

I have a bit of after grass that badly needs spraying for docks.

I should have sprayed it before I took my first cut off it, but I was too slow in getting organised and by the time I thought of it, the weeds had gone past the rosette stage. As I was on holiday for a week there, I’ve sort of done the same again.

The docks are still at a nice enough stage, but the grass is getting quite strong and needs to be grazed. If I get it sprayed now, I’ll need to leave it for a week and ideally two weeks after spraying before grazing, to give the chemical the best chance possible to do a good job. My grass could be getting past grazing by that stage, but I’m going to do it anyway as the field really needs to be sprayed.

Trying to be organised, I sent my telehandler and my quad away to get repairs carried out while I was on holiday. When I got back, both machines were still away, and my tractor had a puncture. So, I couldn’t really do any work, even if I wanted to.