A photo reminder from early July 2018 flashed up on my phone the other day.

A round feeder in a yellow field surrounded by the cows with the sun beating down on them and those further down the pecking order milling around waiting for the herd leaders to have their fill.

Bales were fed then to stretch the rotation a bit.

I can’t think of another year that shaped my outlook on the farm than that one. It led to my first venture with pasture content other than grass and clover.

The last while has seen similar conditions to that summer. I’m not complaining though.

They’ve been the kind of days you long for on a rainy January or March evening, so I’ll enjoy them as best I can.

Grass growth tapered off here due to the lack of moisture lately but, fortunately, the other plants filled up the gap, so there are good covers across the cow block.

There’s even more of the plantain in particular popping up, now that dry weather has pulled the handbrake on grass.

This year instead of round feeders, a few paddocks were allowed to go strong from the middle of June.

If it stayed dry, they would be grazed by the cows using strip wires and if rain came and growth picked up they would go for silage. Those paddocks are almost finished and they bought time for other paddocks to regrow.

Rain on Tuesday morning should see that situation change and more is forecast next week so the grazing and silage plans will be reviewed after that.

The main second cut is about a fortnight away from cutting so after that the focus will be on building covers ahead of the autumn.

Despite the stemmy diet, stock are in good condition and the calves are going ahead of the cows at their own pace. They’re making a big impression too.

Heats were easier to observe due to the numbers although when activity levels fell, it made picking up heats that bit harder

As it’s coincided with AI, it hasn’t added to the workload by any means. I prefer this option to the messing that goes on any time I’ve fed silage at grass. Over-enthusiastic cows swarming around a gap at the sound of a tractor or sight of a bale can lead to unplanned farm tours.

There’s probably only a week or 10 days left with AI meaning most cows will have six to eight weeks of a breeding season. At writing all that remains to be bred is the last cow that calved.

A handful of the top-performing cows have been covered again when they repeated but I’m holding to my one straw policy for cows that would had question marks over them. Keeping them all in one group kept proceedings very simple.

Heats were easier to observe due to the numbers although when activity levels fell, it made picking up heats that bit harder. The larger bunch meant any cow that might be a bit more flighty stayed with the herd when moving.

It’s going to be interesting to see how this year’s breeding policy fares at scanning.