The welcome flush of grass that followed the rain’s return six weeks ago is nearly gone and gateways are becoming messy. I’d say another fortnight and it’ll be winter housing for us.

It hasn’t been a good year for the cattle enterprise. Stores bought in the autumn of 2025 cost too much – I knew it at the time but foolishly ploughed on – and the weaker beef price this summer and autumn has meant they are all dying in debt, to a degree not seen for a long time.

The previous year was quite the opposite and a bonanza, but the factories are making sure that won’t happen ever again. They want it all their own way and it clearly kills them to see feeders prosper.

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Instructions

So, this autumn, instructions have been given to my Delvin buyer to limit the spend on stores to a little along with €2,000/head. Which, to be honest, is not getting me a bullock of much size and it means most continental store cattle are off limits and pushed to my wish list.

But I’m happy to be buying more Hereford X and Aberdeen Angus cattle as the factories pay a premium for these, as that’s what the market wants.

The day and age of big Charolais steaks is gone along with the 400kg-plus carcase. Smaller steaks and lots of mince are the future.

Silage

This year we made only baled silage, as opposed to pit. This worked out well as there are never effluent issues with bales but they are, of course, less convenient to feed.

In the main, we don’t feed meal over the winter but are increasingly feeding more and more meal to finish cattle at grass. I’d be hopeful, with the return to traditional breeds, that we’d get back to finishing with little or no meal.

In my father’s day, we didn’t know what meal was and the cattle were always mud fat off grass and killed out well, whereas now I’m spending €125/head on meal. It greatly erodes a meagre margin like it is this year.

We could, of course, roll our own barley but nowadays, rolled barley on its own would be deemed an inferior feed. However, you don’t roll barley for nothing and the saving wouldn’t be worthwhile. Better to flog the barley and buy back a decent complete ration from Drummonds or McNamara Feeds.

Autosteer woes

I was beginning to think I was losing the plot and that I was either a complete muppet or a complete technophobe or both. In my darkest hour, I consoled myself by thinking there’s lads who’d be thicker than me absolutely flying with autosteer.

As I saw another wobbly tramline, I was even sorry we didn’t run John Deere tractors as their StarFire 7500 is seemingly just brilliant. Thankfully, those desperate thoughts passed quickly.

However, good news was on its way from cyber space and I think my GPS/ autosteer issues are now finally sorted. The subscription (and guest) RTX signal were found to be intermittent, leading to crazy steering movements and could disappear altogether for hours. An ESB pole, let alone a tree, was enough for the signal to disappear. Boy, did it drive me nuts.

As a result, I’ve done some crappy sowing, of which I’ll be reminded of all year.

But my complaints to Atkins were taken seriously, and through hours of trial and error, we had a breakthrough by (kindly) swapping the dome from one of Noel Keogan’s Fendts, and the problem was identified.

But don’t you be doing this at home as it has to be sanctioned by Trimble – the signal provider. Maybe swap your wife or even your husband but whatever you do, don’t be swapping your Trimble equipment.