It has been a long time coming but almost miraculously over the weekend and the early days of this week, spring finally arrived. Grass and even clover, which is normally more temperature-responsive, is actively growing and every day is making a difference.

We have sold all the silage we had classed as surplus to our own needs – if we get a freak run of more bad weather and run out, I will only have myself to blame. We still have no nitrogen spread for this year’s silage as we have given priority to the crops. These too have been transformed by a few days’ kindness with odd flowers appearing in the oilseed rape and the volunteer beans rapidly dying off in the seed wheat after the application of the selective herbicide.

All the winter barley has got its second application of nitrogen. We are keeping a close eye on the forward barley price. We are about €16/t above this time last year.

We have switched the finishing bulls to wheat instead of barley as the scarcity of barley narrows the normal differential between the two. We will keep up the fibre in the bulls’ diet with about 1kg of both hay and straw a day.

In the meantime, we should pay tribute as we remember Jim O’Grady who died last week. One of Teagasc’s and Ireland’s leading animal researchers, especially in nutrition, he left Teagasc to become technical director of the IAWS Group when it became a major force in compounding, milling and fish meal. It was always a pleasure to meet him and learn as he shared his enormous pool of knowledge. May he rest in peace.