A month ago who would have ever thought that by now we could be doing with a shower of rain just to keep the grass growing?

First-cut silage was mowed on 13 May. At that stage ground was just about carrying. Up until then, weather had been broken and unpredictable so this seemed like a window of opportunity not to be missed. Had I known then what was ahead, another day or two would have done no harm just to let the ground soak.

I usually manage to get grass mowed in early May, and bearing in mind the year it has been, crops this year are comparable with previous years.

With silage in and covered I was able to get to Balmoral Show with a clear conscience knowing that all was safely in the pit and grass was growing again. Surely there should be plenty of top-quality silage made around the country this year?

Pricey day out

While it was good to be able to get to the show, it is anything but a cheap day out for the average family. While it is great that RUAS can put on such a showpiece of the local agri-food industry, they are in danger of cutting off the hand that feeds them.

I am as strong an advocate as anyone of the need to engage with, and educate the general public on all things agricultural, as without their support farming could end up in a very difficult place. However, for an average family with a limited weekly budget to live on, £60 to £80 to fork out, before you even set foot in the showgrounds, is a big ask.

Not to mention the price of food once you get inside the showgrounds. In this day and age of running big events, and competing for peoples’ hard-earned money, surely a family pass would be a good idea.

With all the space at the site, is there really any need to be charging £8 just to park the car? For that I would want it to be valet-cleaned and an attendant to have it waiting for me when I step out of the showgrounds. A sceptic would be forgiven for thinking it was a ploy to get people to use the park and ride system.

Low group

Back at the farm, as things stand at the minute, the low-yield group of cows are out day and night with the high group housed full-time and averaging 42 litres.

Up until this week, I have found it difficult to get enough grass built up ahead of the cows and have been buffer feeding heavily at milking time.

However, a sales rep called in last week and I was telling him that I thought the rotation needed to be slowed down to build covers. His response, after looking at the paddocks, was that I needed to speed up the rotation as you only need to have three days of grass ahead of the cows.

On reflection, I would say that he is correct and, with a nice bit of rain over the weekend, grass is flying again.

To keep on top of grass the next move will be to let the high group out during the day. However, the drop in yield for me is always a hard pill to swallow.

Yield

Average yield across the herd currently stands at 29 litres, 3.93% fat and 3.15% protein. As with other years, milk solids have dropped from 4.04%fat and 3.23% protein a month ago when grass was only a small part of the diet.

On the other side, it’s nice to see cows out and the routine is a lot easier.

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Farmer writes: the weather is half the work