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We live in an extraordinary time right now, with COVID-19 causing huge disruption to all our lives. We still have to keep our farm businesses moving forward though and try to concentrate on the things that we have control over. Farms are busy and intense enough at this time of year without all this external pressure.
On a positive note, we do have open spaces to get out for walks and for kids to get out to play safely, so we could be in worse places over the lockdown period. We will also see a reset of people’s values coming out of the recession that we are entering. Agriculture and food production will be re-evaluated and hopefully we will see an end to a lot of the unwarranted negativity that we have been subjected to over the last few years.
We need a strong performance now from our milk and meat processors. We need them to be fluid and move to meet market demands. The food supply chain has been completely disrupted, but that will create as many opportunities as threats. Hopefully, they can continue to get out and bat for us, meet these challenges and protect farm incomes at this difficult time.
Thank you to all those that have continued to ensure our Irish farm produce is collected, processed and marketed through this difficult time.
Grass growth
On-farm, grass growth is taking off this week, so cows’ diets have been pulled back to grass and just 3kg of concentrates. We plan on feeding a 14% protein concentrate with a good mineral pack for the whole breeding season. The maize silage pit has been sealed up again and hopefully we are finished feeding forages for a few months at least.
The last few dry cows have been put out in a close paddock with a ring feeder of hay and mineral buckets. We will wrap up calving over the next month or so. Most have calved without any problems over the last month, with Angus and Hereford calves arriving very easily.
We will start breeding cows early next week, with tailpaint going on over the weekend. Sexed semen will be used heavily on the cows for the first week of breeding. Repeats from this will be picked up in week four. We will start a few days early to allow for a lower conception rate from the sexed semen in week one.
We have leased in some new ground from our neighbours this year and thankfully, we had our water system, roadways and fencing completed over the last few weeks, before the lockdown closed things completely. We had planned some re-seeding later in the year, but we will see how things go over the next few months.
Rotary
We were also about to start a new rotary milking parlour project this month, but with the restrictions on building sites, concrete and the travel restrictions for fitters, we will have to review our plans very quickly. There’s not much point in starting it if we can’t guarantee finishing the project by calving next spring.
We are not over committed to this project at this stage, so things could be a lot worse. We may have to work with the existing milking parlour building and make something work there for a period of time. The financial landscape off-farm has changed significantly in the last few weeks as well, so now might not be the best time to make such a significant investment.
These problems are very minimal, compared to people that have seen their jobs gone, businesses closed, lives totally disrupted and the unfortunate people that will lose their lives to this disease.
We have been lucky enough to make good progress with the rest of our plans, so we will adjust and move on with the rest of the year.
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