Last week, I mentioned briefly that I was surprised at how much chickweed infestation there was in a new ley I had sown last autumn.

Apparently, I am not the only one – the mild, dry weather has allowed the weed to grow continuously over the winter, at least so far, and patches of the plant have even appeared in dense sward of permanent pasture.

We agreed we don’t need to do anything about the permanent pasture patches but there is a likelihood that the new ley will be completely dominated and the grass smothered out if we do not do something about it.

I was grateful for the guidance from my Teagasc adviser and for being steered in the right direction in applying for a TAMS grant on a new fertiliser spreader

Apparently the favoured weedkiller is only allowed to be used after 1 February and when the day is dry and mild.

I was grateful for the guidance from my Teagasc adviser and for being steered in the right direction in applying for a TAMS grant on a new fertiliser spreader.

I need to replace my six-year-old model which is beginning to show its age.

We are still holding off doing any of the spring tillage work and, while it is almost 1 February, none of the crops look particularly advanced.

But that said, ground conditions are extraordinary for the time of year.

We are continuing to graze the store bulls by day and bring them in at night

While streams are flowing more or less as normal, these seem to be fed by springs but some ditches which would normally have lots of water from land drains are completely dry. I hope we won’t pay for it later on.

We are continuing to graze the store bulls by day and bring them in at night.

It is extraordinary to see recovery in the paddocks which had been grazed less than a week ago – so we will continue as long as we can.

A much more serious issue is the price of beef. I have never experienced such a glut of cattle to last for so long around and after Christmas.

We supply everything we produce to the one plant and have done so for several years.

We have attempted to meet the age, weight and feeding specifications as best we can and we give an estimate on how many bulls we expect to have well in advance and to be fair, the meat plant has reciprocated by taking our bulls more or less on schedule.

There have been days when we could only send a few and some postponements but nothing that so far caused us serious problems, but with lairages continuing to be chock-a-block with the progeny of the extra 400,000 dairy cows, some changes at national level are needed.

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