The last week has been cold and harsh, with grass growth rates suppressed again but ground conditions have improved every day and cows are very content, cleaning out paddocks very well and grazing short dry leafy grass all the time. While there might not be any surplus grass on the farm yet, there is just about enough and it is all excellent quality. We have the meal feeders pulled back to 3kg and hopefully we can reduce it to 2kg as soon as a bit of kinder weather arrives.

The silage harvest looks like being late at this stage but a week of warm weather would turn that around very quickly. The milking platform is now stocked at three cows/ha so we will just keep it fertilised for grazing and take out any surplus wraps as they arise. The heifer block will be targeted for a large first cut so we will top up some of those paddocks with some extra nitrogen next week.

We started breeding the cows on 20 April, which is five days later than last year and the bulls were let out with the heifers on 26 April. The heifers were divided into four groups of 20 to 24 for each bull. This is a little complicated because we want to keep track of bloodlines for the pedigree side of the business but after four weeks of breeding, we will be back to one or two groups at most for the summer.

We have the first batch of calves out grazing at this stage and they seem to have settled in well to the grass diet. We moved them to a different part of the farm this year so the fencing had to be upgraded before turnout. We will put some extra water troughs on this ground as well to help with sub-divisions over the next few weeks.

All of the spring work is keeping us busy so it’s a bit easier to ignore the big elephant in the room which is milk price and the effect on cashflow that it is going to have for the rest of this year. With the cost of doing business going up all the time, the price this year will have a bigger impact on farm finances than the 20c in 2009, especially as a lot of farmers have expanded since and are rearing extra heifers or renting extra ground to do so.

The only saving grace this time is that the main banks in the country are now in a much stronger position than in 2009. For anyone who’s under pressure there is plenty of help out there from accountants, agricultural advisers, the IFA, discussion groups and the agri-adviser teams with all of the main banks. There are lots of options without having to do a major re-financing of the farm.

All of these people are used to dealing with difficult situations and are willing and usually able to help. The worst thing to do is to muddle along under pressure all the time through the high cashflow months until you hit a brick wall as the stress and worry will lead to other problems. The earlier a problem is addressed the easier it is to find a solution and a better outcome for everyone involved.