As we continue to sell our dairy steers, it is becoming clearer with every animal sold the huge difference breeding makes.

We are achieving a decent finish of around 3= but the variation in individual performance seems to be greater than with the bulls that I used buy in from the suckler herd.

The variation is in both liveweight gain per day and carcase conformation and can easily add up to €350 between bullocks of the same age, far greater than their potential margin.

Theoretically, the early grazing should allow a uniform regrowth of high-quality material

We are coming to the stage where we have to take decisions on what ground to close up for first-cut silage. There is always the choice – do we take a grazing before closing or close up and cut slightly earlier?

Theoretically, the early grazing should allow a uniform regrowth of high-quality material but I have usually succumbed to the temptation to let it bulk up in the early days of June and quality has plummeted.

On the crop side, the wet weather before the weekend put a stop to all thought of getting beans sown

With dairy-bred steers, we have no option but to keep in-house meal feeding to a minimum so this year, we are closing up over the next few days with the aim of cutting in the last days of May – weather permitting.

On the crop side, the wet weather before the weekend put a stop to all thought of getting beans sown and the ploughing has come to a standstill. But we got some Roundup out on a field intended for beans that needed cleaning up and deepened a ditch, which had accumulated debris over the years to the stage where it was blocking a watercourse.