Last Friday, we went fully clear in our annual bovine TB test.

It was a relief to be clear, though as I mentioned last week, the main consequence of one or more reactors would have been the obligation to have retests until clear. An extra penalty that doesn’t get much attention is the condition that no compensation is paid for reactors that are removed from the herd because of testing positive.

But that’s all theoretical now that we are clear. We want to keep it that way.

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Over the last few days, we renewed our membership of the ICBF HerdPlus programme. It’s €60 well spent as it gives us access to the genetic merit of the store cattle we have bought in.

This commercial beef value (CBV) is available for an ever increasing proportion of the cattle we are buying in.

When we compare the value of the carcase with the calculated CBV of the animal as purchased, the correlation is real.

With a greater proportion of beef coming from the progeny of the dairy herd, visibility on genetic make up at the time of purchase is a huge help.

We still have some beef cattle to sell and the lack of a price increase as we go through May – normally the peak month for scarcity and price – is more than just disappointing.

While we have no option but to continue to finish the cattle that are on hand, the visible gap between the Bord Bia benchmark price and Irish farmer returns raises really basic questions on the operating model of the Irish beef industry.

Meanwhile, out in the tillage fields, despite the prolonged dry spell, I have never seen the winter wheat and barley look as well.

I always find it difficult to judge a crop of standing oilseed rape, but this is the first year for quite some time that I have sown a conventional new hybrid variety.

So far as I can see, Charlock has not been a problem so I am hopeful for a full yield.

I have come to the conclusion that – at least as far as the autumn-sown cereal crops are concerned – they have adequate moisture after the exceptionally wet winter and spring, but the same cannot be said for the beans.

With the benefit of hindsight, we should probably have sown them deeper to allow the developing roots to tap easily into the moisture underneath but as it is, the emerged plants are just sitting there.

They are now a full three weeks without moisture and it is showing all too clearly.

In the yard, our new solar installation is working well. We by chance applied for the TAMS grant in good time and the money has safely arrived. The first bill with the solar contribution has also arrived, and the difference between the cost of total dependence on the grid and the new arrangement is striking.