Breeding is well under way at this stage. There’s a bull out with the second and third calvers since 25 May and the older cows are getting AI.

Two-thirds have received one straw each in the first 10 days. It’s all polled AI this year in an effort to decrease the workload next spring. It’s something that should have been looked into years ago, if I’m honest.

When all have been served, the bull will be let in with them to mop up. The only bit that doesn’t seem to have gone fully to plan is the heifers. They’re not visibly showing heats as much as other years.

It’s probably due to the fact they are a bit younger and got out to grass later than usual. The late spring hasn’t helped either. It has only been in the last two weeks or so that trees have filled out with leaves. There’s usually a few that we don’t see every other year too. Scanning will reveal all in a few weeks.

Buffer feed

The purchase of a buffer feed to allow silage stock build up paid off. However it meant the amount of ration fed per cow was 18kg/head this year when usually it is under 2kg/head. Unless they are being finished I’m not a fan of feeding meal to sucklers.

Grass growth has been very consistent over the last few weeks following a very slow start to the year.

The last week or so has seen the need to walk the farm a few times a week such is the growth rate. Building up silage stocks is a priority and is well under way.

The settled dry weather is a help. There’s a bit of extra cutting required this year to make up for using more than usual in April and May.

Silage is a regular part of the grass management routine here now compared with the few big event days of a decade ago.

Like much of the current standard practice here, silage making has evolved over the years.

In these parts the presence of sea mist means you don’t always get perfect silage, so we plan accordingly.

Sometimes you get super conditions and a chance to wilt grass and on some cutting days the baler might be on not too long after the mower. It’s a bit of a lottery but we learned from 2012 to just get it done.

That year we were waiting for nitrogen to be fully used up before cutting, then the weather was awful for three weeks and we ended up with 17 bales to the acre of pure rubbish.

Since then we put out closer to 50 or 60 units of nitrogen per acre for silage and from May to the end of July there are bales made almost every fortnight if not sooner.

TB test

I received the notification of the annual TB test and I have to commend the Department of Agriculture for improving the format of it.

The previous notification letters seemed to have a far more accusatory tone and had a threatening air about them. What I received last week was laid out in a simpler easy to understand format.

Speaking of TB, I found an old notification letter at home and it started as follows:

“It has been decided to make a very special effort this year to accelerate the eradication of bovine tuberculosis from your area. Despite all the efforts of the past 18 years, there still remain some pockets of infection which must be cleared up.”

It is dated May 1972.

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Farmer Writes: farming in a foreign tongue

Farmer Writes: calving ends and breeding begins