The spurt in beef and cattle prices has really taken us aback. During the week we took delivery of the first load of replacements for the beef we had sold, it’s a mixed bag with some cattle born in the late spring of ‘23 and some in early ‘24.

While all will go out to grass, the younger cattle are costing more per kg but will grow into money as an older generation would say, but if prices stay at or increase on current levels, then the more forward cattle would make more sense.

Everyone says beef and cattle are on a new level but unanimity on the future price of cattle usually turns out to be wrong so we will take purchasing expensive stores carefully.

One aspect of the Angus cross dairy beef that we have been finishing over the last few years that has struck me is how few come into fat class 4.

The pure Angus can become over fat very easily but we seem to have much more flexibility with the cross, presumably with the influence of the Holstein dam.

Carcase gain

But what we are not quite clear on is whether carcase gain stalls once a fat score of 3= is reached. Liveweight gain per day certainly reduces sharply but kill out seems to improve, at least to some extent. We will try and measure liveweight, finish and carcase weight and see if correlations emerge.

Meanwhile, we are still tidying up after last week’s storm. The outhouses with their galvanised roof stripped off have been inspected by our normal builder and the estimate will be given to our insurer’s loss adjuster within the deadline set. How much we will end up getting paid is still up for discussion.

The main problem is the amount of time that dealing with the fallen trees is taking.

Cutting them up is a time consuming laborious job, and while we should have lots of fuel for the two wood burning stoves we installed in recent years, I’d rather be able to sell the fallen trees and free up time for work building up, such as slurry and fertiliser spreading, but the prospect of getting someone to pay for a fallen tree seems a bit remote in our part of the country.

One astonishing casualty in the storm was an old stone pier. I can only assume that it was built without any foundation and we may have weakened it by cleaning out a ditch beside it.

It is a good example of the farm heritage so when we get round to it the intention is to number the stones and rebuild it. Another item on the to-do list.