The rain that fell last month was short-lived and strict grassland management and budgeting was needed to get through the month. Thankfully, there has been a decent amount of rainfall over the last week which has turned things around. With the rain forecast, I blanket spread the farm with three-quarters of a bag of pasture sward.

A number of fields have had to be topped here lately as they were a bit on the stemmy side before the ewes went in to graze them. This was due mainly to the grass being under stress from the dry conditions. I have a few more that aren’t as bad which I will clean off properly with the ewes after weaning them.

Growth last week was around 32kg DM/kg and I hope this will at least double by this week, now that soil moisture is improving. This will hopefully give me the opportunity to make the balance of the silage requirement for the winter.

It is important to keep the lambs drafted as they become fit

We will be starting to wean the ewes and lambs shortly after we take the next draft of lambs to the factory. It is surprising how well the lambs have been thriving this year, helped enormously by the sun shining on their backs and very few setbacks, resulting in this year’s first draft of lambs from the farm being about three weeks earlier than usual. It is important to keep the lambs drafted as they become fit as any lambs that are killing out over the weight limit in the factories are only providing discounted meat to them with no positive benefit to us, the farmer.

I find managing the stock and grass after weaning a lot easier. Lambs are divided into their four groups with ewes following around behind cleaning out the paddocks. One of the first things I do after weaning is to pull out and cull any ewes with broken mouths, problem elders and those that have received a double notch in their ear since last year. Any ewes that are lame will be removed and put into a separate group for treatment.

Any of the ewe lambs suitable for breeding which are surplus to my requirements will be sold to a number of repeat customers

Any that don’t respond favourably to treatment will also be culled from the system. Once these ewes are identified, I will then have a better idea of how many replacements are required for the coming season. The group of heavy ewe lambs will be where I select my replacements from.

Information such as litter size, birth weight and average daily gain from their lambing to weaning will be used to select these.

Any of the ewe lambs suitable for breeding which are surplus to my requirements will be sold to a number of repeat customers who buy these direct from the farm.

Transfers

As I was waiting outside my closest bank to lodge the cheque for the lambs that I had sold recently, it struck me, how given the current situation with COVID-19 wouldn’t it be so convenient if the factories were facilitating electronic transfers.

Unfortunately, the factory I deal with currently doesn’t offer this but I seem to be able to pay so many contractors/business people that I do business with through this cashless process. Even the banks are trying to discourage us from writing cheques. Not only would it speed up the whole process, it would save time, cost less and, in the current COVID-19 era, help with social distancing. I would certainly be in favour of it and I’m sure I’m not alone.