Padraig O’Connor

Co Roscommon

Bale swap

Things have gotten bad here again. We got a lot of rain on Monday. I am out of bales but have been able to source some from a neighbour. There’s no money changing hands – I’m simply to replace them during the summer. Farmers have to work together to get through the difficult spell.

Thirty-six yearlings were out but came back in on Tuesday as the ground was beginning to poach. There are six cows left to calve. In terms of health for young calves, I’m managing OK. I’m allowing them creep out to fields. Fodder as opposed to shed space is the issue here at the moment. I had stock out five weeks this time last year.

John Dunne

Co Offaly

Pull together

We’re swimming. Fodder isn’t an issue here. Keeping calves healthy in sheds is, however. They need to be out and it’s difficult to look at them lying in corners feeling sorry for themselves.

I am sending bales to a couple of neighbours. One friend rang yesterday to say he was totally out but reluctant to seek help. Farmers have to pull together and keep their heads up. He took bales from me, but who’s to say he won’t help me out down the line?

Another neighbour is taking hay off me and giving me straw for bedding.

I do have some light heifers on an outfarm and there is grass there. The headache I have now is to bring them in and sort them for genomic tagging – their BDGP tags arrived after they left the shed.

Wesley Browne

Co Monaghan

‘Normal for me’

I still have 100 bales so I’m OK for fodder. Cows are getting out to grass in small groups still. Ground conditions are difficult but I’m keeping them moving. There are about 30 out, running in groups of five or six.

In truth, this weather hasn’t really caught us out. You’re lucky to be out in April around these parts. My calves and cows are probably the only animals outdoors in the area, but the calves really are flying it.

I’m about halfway through my calving and I’m lucky that I don’t have a very early calving date or the pressure could be on much worse. There’s about 10 per week arriving at present.

Nigel O’Kane

Co Galway

Grass but no bales

Conditions here are wet and miserable. I am completely out of my own fodder save for 10 bales of straw. I got 12 bales from a local dairy farmer and doubled up on the meal going into young and growing stock and I’m managing fine at that. Cows are eating 2kg of a dairy nut daily too.

There’s good grass on the farm but I just can’t get to it. I have two weeks’ worth ahead of cows and three weeks ahead of my lighter stock.

A creep area in my new shed is working well. We only have two left to calve and have 25 calved.

Three calves developed scour but thankfully a test showed that it was nothing too sinister. One just refused to use the creep area and lay in the dirt.

Joe Healy

Co Meath

Lucky to be late

We’re OK for fodder here. I have 90 bales of hay, 40 silage and 50t in a pit so we could probably stretch right up to first cut – but hopefully things will come right much sooner. Unfortunately, I lost 20 acres of ground that I was renting this year so I can see myself having to buy in 300-400 bales next year. My biggest concern here is baby calves. There are only five calved here and they’re out and will be staying out. They aren’t doing huge damage. My calving spread starts in April and I’m thankful for this. I would hate to have 30/40 young calves to look after at the moment.

We have had some misfortune early on in recent calving seasons but thankfully this one has started very well. I began feeding hay to dry cows last year when things were going bad and it seemed to help so I am doing the same this year.

John Grieve

Co Donegal

Sheep filling in

I was just saying to my father Gerard that the late spring is normal around these parts and that people won’t start getting concerned for another week or so. There are five cows left to calve and young calves are creeping out during the day. Sheep are clipping off the silage ground – the ewes are going out as they lamb. There’s 80 out and 20 left.

Fodder stocks are OK for about a fortnight. We did have heifers out at grass for about 10 days but they came back in. They were standing with humps on them in the rain. These heifers were supposed to be on the silage ground but the sheep are filling in. Any grass we carried over has turned black at this stage.

John McSweeney

Co Cork

On/off huge help

I ran out of silage about three weeks ago but got 80 bales from a local dairy farmer and have sourced more since. I am stretching it with straw and meal and we are OK for another fortnight. Cows were getting out by day all along and the farm is nearly all grazed at this stage. This was a huge help in terms of stretching fodder. My yearlings grazed heavier parts of the farm in February so thankfully I can avoid damage to these. Three good days would do a lot for me and I am seeing greenness and a small degree of growth on the grazed ground. I was able to get urea and slurry out early on but spreading has come to a halt in recent weeks.

Our next BETTER farm walk happens on Tuesday 10 April in Sligo. Glen McDermott and his son Dillon (Castlebaldwin) are hosts and the event will cover breeding and quality silage making. Glen farms part-time, uses AI and is looking to make main silage crops in the seventies for digestibility percentage. There will be live demos of stock and machinery on the day as well as advice on using AI, synchronisation, choosing stock bulls, compacting calving patterns and fertilising for silage.