All spring, with low temperatures and constant rain, we at most had cattle out by day and in by night. Even with that laboursome regime, we damaged some paddocks more than I was comfortable with. But now, there is an explosion of growth, we are finishing the grazing off of paddocks and fields we are closing up for silage so paddocks in the queue for grazing have very full covers to put it at its mildest.

We should probably take some of them out for hay or baled silage as already in the old, permanent pasture the meadow foxtail has headed out and the white dandelion heads give the place an untidy, under-grazed look.

My temptation is to give the bulls extra space and then top to keep the quality of the regrowths up. There always seems to be a compromise at this time of the year between animal performance and grass husbandry, but the grass is there to maximise animal weight gain and that has to be the priority.

Meanwhile, the winter crops look satisfactory. I am told not to expect bumper yields especially of winter barley and not surprisingly, the wheat that went in to the oats ground with the spreaded straw that I couldn’t bale will probably need a bit more nitrogen.

Customer

But speaking of my oats, I was heartened to hear my customer at a breakfast growers’ meeting tell us how well the product was being received, not just in the US but also in Britain and on the continent. While the traceability and hygiene demands are real, both for me as a grower as well as the processor, it’s good to see us getting nearer to the consumer with an Irish-produced cereal product.

Meanwhile, I have customers lined up for all my straw – wheat, oats and winter barley. We haven’t discussed actual prices yet but it’s good to see interest so early.