We’ve had a welcome drop of rain in Kilkenny over the last 10 days, which has lifted grass growth again. We could do with another drop over the next few weeks to keep growth moving forward, but for the next while grass has recovered well enough to pull out silage and drop concentrate usage back to 4kg.

We will measure again later in the week to see if we can drop concentrates further.

The cows were very lazy about cleaning out paddocks when the silage was included in the diet, but are back working harder again. Protein dropped to 3.5% with the silage and stressed, stemmy grass, but has risen quickly to over 3.6% again with cows back on better-quality grass and concentrates. Production is holding up well overall, at 1.91kg of milk solids.

The heifer calves have been moved to the aftergrass from the second cut of silage and are thriving very well in those fields. We will bale some of the grass if it gets too strong, and get them into a regular grazing rotation on this ground for the rest of the year.

They are in exceptional condition this year, with only a handful held back close to the yard for special attention.

Their coats were a little coppery for the last month, so we put some high protein mineral tubs out in the field. These tubs have a strong level of copper included, which should improve their coats quickly. The tubs also contain 15% protein, which keeps a little fuel in the engine for growth with these young ladies. We don’t feed any concentrates to calves at grass if they are up to target weight, but we feel these tubs give the calves just enough protein and energy to keep them thriving, as well as maintaining adequate mineral levels.

Scanning

We have scanning booked for the middle of August for both the cows and heifers. They have been very quiet since we pulled out the bulls, so hopefully we will get a good result. We hope to grow the herd again next year so they are all wanted this time round.

We have plenty of winter feed in to carry extra cows through the rest of the year, unlike last year when we were pulling out barren cows early to get demand down as much as possible before autumn.

We also managed to get our straw organised for the winter this week between the showers, with a good team in place to bale it up and draw it in quickly.

Our neighbours and friends grew a great crop of winter barley. While the straw is effectively a by-product of this enterprise, it is a vital addition to our business. We are very lucky to be in a part of the country with this by-product readily available on our doorstep.

We look forward to opening these bales up in the dead of winter to get a reminder of the smells of summer and harvest. We will feed some to the dry cows to stretch silage and keep condition off some cows. We will use the rest in the calving box and under young calves in spring.

Hopefully, there will be a market for these calves again in spring. At 350c/kg for beef, no system of production leaves a profit. Brexit looks to be going to add to the problem, but without a crystal ball we can’t see what the future will bring. Hopefully something will happen quickly to alleviate the situation.

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