All of my first-cut silage, which came to 30 acres, was harvested at the end of May and I was quite happy with the yield. Grass bulked up well before cutting and yields were close on 14t of silage per acre on a fresh-weight basis. Even with the higher yields, silage quality is also excellent and ideal for finishing cattle.

Since then, I have managed to harvest around 16 acres of surplus grass from grazing paddocks as bales and will take out more in the next week. I am carrying a stocking rate of around 3.6 LU/ha at the moment and have around 30 days ahead of me, which is too high; hence the reason for making more baled silage. Grass growth has been excellent this year and last week I measured 138kg DM/ ha/day, which was my highest ever recording. I am currently feeding 36 steers for finishing at grass. They are eating 3.5kg/head/day of a grass finisher nut and will be killed in around one week’s time. I will begin to replace these stock with lighter stores once the finishers are gone.

I am continuing to spread a bag of CAN per acre after each grazing. All my P and K applications for this year are finished. I have spread between 2000 and 3000 gallons per acre of cattle slurry on silage ground, depending on soil index for second-cut silage. This was topped up with three bags of CAN per acre. Topping is also being carried out at the minute to maintain pasture quality so that finishing cattle are on top-quality grass over the rest of the season. With the good weather this week, I am getting up to date with a lot of field work. I have burnt off three acres with glyphosate for reseeding this week. Also, I am hoping to start carrying out drainage work on a wet field as soon as possible to improve production from the sward.