It’s the calm before the storm again here this week, with a lot of cows springing up quickly, but no calves on the ground yet.

We are getting busier every day though, as we move closer to D-day.

Most of the calf sheds are ready for the new arrivals now, with the last run of cleaning, disinfecting and bedding done.

We also have the batch teat feeders pulled out, cleaned and disinfected and any worn teats replaced.

We also got most of the veterinary and calving supplies organised this week

The automatic feeders will get their service and final clean over the next week or so too. We shouldn’t need to put any calves on them until nearer the end of the month so we have a bit of time still with these machines.

We also got most of the veterinary and calving supplies organised this week, including the new tags for the year. Hopefully everything is reasonably well set up now for the busy period. A quick chat with our vet puts a bit of a plan or protocol in place for dealing with calves each spring. Hopefully we can stick to that plan then when things get busy.

A good bit of organisation now can save us a lot of stress and hassle

The calving camera also got the once over, and is working well thankfully. We might just add a few more lights in some houses and we should be good to go.

A good bit of organisation now can save us a lot of stress and hassle over the next few weeks, so hopefully we are on top of things.

We have a good team in place for the spring, so hopefully nobody will get burnt out or overworked.

The slurry is the one job that we couldn’t start until after Wednesday of this week and typically the rain has arrived again with the end of the closed period.

If we can get a round of slurry out now, we will hopefully get to skip an application of urea on that ground until February

We will get started on this job at the first opportunity and try to get a nice amount out with the trailing shoe before we get too busy.

We will spread some with our own spreader and get an umbilical trailing shoe system in to give a push on with the rest.

If we can get a round of slurry out now, we will hopefully get to skip an application of urea on that ground until February. The addition of the trailing shoe this year should make it easier to get slurry out, even where a cover of grass has been carried through the winter.

This has been a big issue in the past, so hopefully the investment in the trailing shoe will start to repay itself quickly through the spring.

Soil samples

We are also taking some soil samples this week before the slurry goes out to give us an up to date picture of where soil fertility is sitting.

We have had to pull back on phosphorus applications over the last few years due to high indexes, so we need to check where we stand now.

All the best to everyone for the new season

If most of the farm is still high, we will have to continue to target extra slurry and farmyard manure at the few lower paddocks.

Maybe the tests will give us a higher artificial P allowance to make it a bit easier to build up the fertility of these fields.

All the best to everyone for the new season. Hopefully the calves arrive healthy, the cows hit the ground running and the weather plays ball with us. All we can do is keep the wheels turning on the farms and hopefully everything off-farm sorts itself out as soon as possible.