Farm manager Shaun Diver was happy to see rain on Tullamore Farm on Wednesday. With close to 80ac out of the grazing block, it is now stocked at 4.21LU/ha with a daily grass demand of 57kg DM/ha/day and rising. This is pushing grass supplies to the limit.

For the last seven days the growth rate has been 68kg DM/ha/day. With an average farm cover of 717kg DM/ha, the farm is just about OK but surpluses are out of the question for now. With plenty of rain falling on Wednesday, there is a strong likelihood that growth should pick up to over the 80kg DM/ha/day mark and relieve the grass situation once again.

The aforementioned 80ac out of the grazing block consists of approximately 40ac closed for second-cut silage, 18ac closed for hay and 18ac of a reseed.

The second-cut silage ground consists of some of the first-cut ground and some ground which was being grazed. Ground that was cut received slurry plus two bags per acre of Cut Sward. Ground that was being grazed got three bags per acre of Cut Sward.

The reseed is doing well but the rain will give it a further push-on. It will be grazed with sheep first.

Shaun Diver, farm manager at Tullamore Farm.

Cattle

The first load of young bulls went to the factory on Tuesday. With a high number of Angus bred calves out of maiden heifers on this first draft of 14 bulls, R grades were in the majority while carcase weights were pulled down slightly to an average of 360kg. Fat scores were good with the average being a 3=.

It is expected that as more continental-bred bulls come on stream, carcase weight will rise closer to 400kg and grading should consist of more Us. Fat score may come down slightly too but all bulls will still need to be 2+ or over go on the grid. The next draft will be next week.

Elsewhere in the cattle enterprise, all calves received a dose for lungworm on Tuesday. While faecal tests showed up clear a number of weeks ago, an increased level of coughing over the last 10 days triggered the action. A Fenbendazole white-drench product was used.

While the calves were in, the oldest received their booster clostridial vaccine while the youngest received their primary shot. Shaun is extremely pleased with how calves are performing to date and an upcoming task will be to raise the electric fence wires to allow calves to continue grazing ahead of their dams.

Fifteen out of 41 synchronised heifers repeated at the weekend so they received AI. This results in a 63% first-time conception rate to the synchronisation programme used.

Sheep

Two batches of lambs received a clostridial disease vaccine this week while a white drench was also administered. Faecal egg counts will commence from here on to determine the need for dosing. A percentage of lambs were also suffering from mild effects of scald with lambs footbathed in a zinc sulphate solution.

One batch of lambs received pour-on protection for blowfly strike with the second batch delayed due to unsuitable weather. The remaining batch of younger lambs will receive a health programme next week. The plan is to begin weighing lambs the next time they are in the yard to monitor performance.