At long last the weather has improved and most of the cattle and sheep are out at grass.

It seems an awful long time since they were housed. It has been a very poor spring which has extended the winter.

But now that the weather has improved everything can get out of control very quickly. The list of jobs needing done is very long and in reality, some will not get sorted this spring.

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Lambing has finished and we are down to the last three cows to calve so it is a suitable time to look back and reflect on things that have worked well and things that might need to be changed. Lambing went reasonably well considering the poor weather.

My son, William had issues with a ram not working last autumn. It meant that the ewe lambs did not lamb along with the ewes and started about two weeks after the ewes had finished. This meant that we had a two-week break in the middle of lambing.

It ended up being a blessing in disguise. We had a chance to get the ewes and lambs settled in the field before the ewe lambs started lambing. It also meant we had a chance to catch our breath and have a little rest. When the ewe lambs did start lambing, it meant we could concentrate on them and spend more time sorting any problems.

In fact, we are actually now thinking about doing something similar every year. An infertile ram has been a blessing and possibly leading to management changes.

Calving

The suckler cows have not done as well as I would have liked. We have had a lot more issues than I had hoped for.

We actually had no problems with the cows calving with most of them giving birth unaided. The issues were after calving.

We had a calf killed by the cow which has not happened for a long time. I do not know what I could have done to avoid this.

Then I had a cow calve with no milk which was not ideal, as well as a cow which took mastitis after she calved – despite our best efforts, she did not make it.

The bad weather meant turn-out was delayed and they are not that long out in the fields, so it has been a hard slog to get this far. They are actually looking very well in the fields now. It might not be long till we forget all about the bad spring.

Heats

There seem to be a fair amount of heat activity in the cows which is quite surprising. I would have expected the delayed turn-out to have had a detrimental effect on the cows cycling again. Breeding is a few weeks away, so I have still time to have a good look at the calves and decide which bulls to use again this year.

As in previous years, we have had a lot more bull calves than heifers which has got me thinking if it might be worthwhile going back to using sexed semen. I have stopped using sexed semen because of issues with TB and being closed and unable to sell in-calf heifers. There is a lot for me to think about in the next couple of weeks.

Grass

There is one other issue at the moment and that is the grass. We have a quad sower and we got out early with fertiliser. This along with the delayed turnout has meant that I now have a lot of grass ahead of myself.

As a result, another job to add to the list is to start taking bales out for silage. Grass can get out of control very quickly at this time of year, so it is very important to keep on top of grazing swards.

While it is good to reflect on the last few weeks, I also need to move on and concentrate on the here and now.