We had our dry, free-draining farm back for a while at last this week after the horrendous winter but hopefully it doesn’t slip back too much with more rain forecast over the next few days.

We still have some no-go areas on both the milking platform and the silage block and there are swans swimming around on a couple of low-lying acres on the heifer block but the majority of the farm is back in full working order even if only temporarily.

We have all the silage fertiliser out now and the growth has been exceptional on that ground over the last few weeks.

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The milking platform has finally turned the corner as well, with growth rates hitting 100kg DM/ha some days in the heat, although with some harsh weather forecast over the next few days, there’s no need to start looking for surpluses just yet.

Breeding

We have started breeding this week and cows have been showing very strong heats in big numbers, so breeding is complete on 50% of the herd after nine days.

We used a small amount of sexed semen in the first week of the season. This will probably reduce the conception rate slightly for that week, but the repeats will hopefully get picked up in week four and shouldn’t have too much of an effect on our overall performance.

We are still feeding the cows 5kg of concentrate this week which will drop by another kilo per week over the next few weeks, when this cold and wet spell is over.

The cows are milking 2.3kg of milk solids per day for the last week or so, since the ground dried up enough for full-time grazing again.

They will probably drop back in litres slightly from now on as they start to settle in-calf but hopefully the solids will creep up on the other side to maintain production at a decent level.

Our heifers have settled into their grazing routine over the last few weeks. We have divided them into groups with an unrelated Friesian bull in each group.

We will put beef bulls out with them after the first three weeks and run them all in a single group again for simpler management after that. We have an Aubrac and an easy-calving Hereford this year earmarked for the job.

Milk price

Downward pressure continues on milk price this month while concentrate feed moves rapidly in the opposite direction.

Glanbia seem to have become a victim of their own success on the feed side with schemes driving demand up but with feed stocks quickly running out.

Most of the offer of €50 of a rebate per tonne of feed ordered in April has been swallowed up already by price increases through the month to replace these stocks on the current inflated market.

The GDT in New Zealand is up slightly, the butter, cheese and whole milk powder markets are strengthening but we’re being told to brace ourselves again for further milk price cuts.

Fixed milk price schemes will be a big help again this year in Glanbia but they take the pressure off GII to deliver a good base price to its suppliers.

At the first sign of turbulence the milk price is pulled and the feed price is pushed.

Then the co-op steps in to compensate for both.

We used to think the structure was complicated in Glanbia 10 years ago but with all the current schemes, rebates, bonuses and top-ups it’s getting seriously complicated and we seem to spend more time now time trying to understand what’s going on than arguing about it.