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I don’t think we have ever had paddocks as cut up during the first week in October as we have seen over the last few days. The continuous rain, especially on Sunday, left pools of water in places you might see after a night’s rain in mid-winter, not in early October.
As I mentioned last week, we have a lot of grass still to graze, so I am really reluctant to bring cattle in at this stage. All we can do is continue to move each lot onto fresh grass each day and hope that the damage they leave behind will cure itself over the rest of the autumn and winter.
At 22 to 25 months, the steers have a hardiness that comes from maturity
But, with that said, I am surprised that the dairy-bred steers look as well as they do.
At 22 to 25 months, the steers have a hardiness that comes from maturity, compared with young bulls, which would melt and be very agitated after enduring the kind of conditions we have had over the last few days.
I would be happy enough planting winter barley until 15 October and perhaps a bit later
Meanwhile, all field work on the tillage side has stopped completely. However, we have most of the winter barley sown and rolled in good conditions. The remaining field that I had earmarked for winter barley can stay unsown until the spring, when the assumption is that we will be able to get beans planted. But it’s comparatively early and given reasonable conditions, I would be happy enough planting winter barley until 15 October and perhaps a bit later.
The plan now is to get the winter wheat planted as soon as possible and then the gluten-free oats. The aim is not to get caught by the early onset of wet, unworkable soils as we did last year, with severe knock-on effects on yield and profitability.
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