On the bull side of the house, 15 have been drafted for slaughter on Tullamore Farm, leaving a total of 19 bulls remaining.

Farm manager Shaun Diver said: “I plan on slaughtering the remaining bulls in the next 10 days.

"It’s important to keep a close eye on the heavier bulls’ liveweight gain and monitor any bulls that are slowing down in average weight per day.

"We want to be as efficient as possible with our feed and will be drafting bulls for slaughter that don’t continue to perform on their average weight per day."

Grass cover

The grass cover this week is 985kg DM/ha, remaining similar to last week’s grass cover. The average growth rate per day has remained at 71kg DM/ha, with the demand per day settling at 52kg DM/ha.

Shaun said: “Growth is tipping away nicely this week, with a steady amount of grass growing on the farm. The growth is well above the demand, giving grass a good opportunity to grow.

"This week, we topped 30 acres around the farm, as some heavier covers had been grazed and just with the time of year, some stemmier grass had begun to appear in parts of the farm.

"Resetting the sward with topping will mean the grazing quality will be excellent in the next rotation.

"The plan is to spread more fertiliser on these fields this week just to keep growth going and help with grass quality,” he said.

Breeding

Breeding continues to be going well on the farm, with the majority of cows and heifers showing signs of activity.

Repeats are currently being noted, with eight cows not bred and four cows that have repeated twice to be scanned next week.

The Salers stock bull continues to run with the heifers, mopping up any repeats after they were initially bred to AI.

Sheep

This week, the remaining ewes and lambs were foot-bathed to cure any signs of scald developing due a bit more stem appearing in the sward and the higher levels of moisture in the grass.

With the weather continuing to get warmer, Shaun mentioned that it’s important for sheep farmers to look out for any signs of maggots in ewe and lambs.

On Tullamore Farm, the ewes are winter-sheared and the lambs received a pour-on prevention against fly strike.

The next task on the farm is to focus on the ewe hoggets, which have developed a heavy fleece. Next week, Shaun plans on shearing these to eliminate any risk of maggots developing.

All hogget lambs will also be vaccinated against clostridial diseases while in for shearing in the coming days.