Last week, we sent the first few of the housed cattle to the factory. In reality, they were leftovers from the 2022 grazing season. Most of their colleagues had long gone and the delay showed in their ages which were 28 to 29 months, just scraping in under the 30-month deadline when we lose quality assurance and top-up payments.

At an average carcase weight of 316kg and an average killout of almost exactly 56%, their lifetime performance was mediocre. They graded mostly O+ with a fat score from 3- to 4- . What I want to find out from our various figures and weighings is how much of the gain has come from grass.

Looking at last week’s editorial, the ICBF projections and article from Declan Marren, it is clear that the number of dairy-beef animals is going to continue to increase as a percentage of national beef output and the proportion of suckler bred will decline.

Given the low profitability in the system, maximum utilisation of grazed grass is going to be essential, coupled I hope with more accurate knowledge of the genetic value of the cattle we buy in.

On the crop side, out of the blue I had a phone call from the company I grow seed wheat for. They were wondering had I got my seed wheat in after harvesting the beans.

In fact, we had sown it quite easily with the plough and one-pass system. It was only when I was at a small tillage gathering and looked around locally that I understood the reason for the phone call. It seems that areas dependent on min till and direct drilling have large percentages of land intended for winter crops unplanted. This is borne out by the initial estimates from the Department of Agriculture showing a very significant drop in winter cereal sowings.

Dry October

Last year’s dry October was ideal for the min till system. This year was very different. We are constantly being told how much more carbon-friendly the non-plough systems are. In fact, I am not so sure.

Certainly, they use less fuel but they are more dependent on glyphosate and favourable weather. Over the years when we had compulsory organic matter testing of our tillage soils, we had no deterioration in organic matter content on land that was continuously ploughed.