A small opening in the weather came on Monday, and it looked like the threat of rain would pass around lunch time. Grey clouds hung low all morning as they have done for much of July, but it remained dry.

At 2 o’clock I confirmed with the contractor that the risk of rain had disappeared from the forecast and we were good to go.

Keeping in trend with 2024, he had a few runs done in the second field when a misty drizzle came in and soaked the place for an hour.

It hasn’t been easy to catch a break all year, but hopefully that silage will be completed by the end of the week. The weather challenges appear to be continuing, with warm sunny days a rarity.

It feels like March but with longer hours at the moment, and the combination of cooler nights and mornings, along with grey cloud, are putting a dent in grass growth.

The only paddock performing as I expected on the whole farm is two acres of red clover. It was set in late June last year and struggled due to the nature of last summer, but this year it’s delivering in spades so far with almost 50 bales from two cuts already.

It’s the first year that I can recall where most of the paddocks on the home block will require topping. Usually, the baler gets to almost every paddock there in June or July, but that hasn’t been the case so far.

I was hoping that growth would come and those paddocks would get taken out as surplus bales instead but unless the summer is turned on its head, I can’t see that happening.

Stripwires continue to be in use in paddocks where grass is stemmy. I’m contemplating adding silage to the first calvers group before the weekend, as they will be in a paddock where it’s easy to feed it.

Heifers

Another option is to bring the cull heifers into the shed either full time or feed silage and ration there instead. If silage is complete across the road and regrowth gets going there, that should mean those options won’t be required but as it stands those appear to be my options.

I weighed those heifers at the weekend and I’m happy with how they are doing, some of those with more continental breeding might benefit from a bit of extra feeding in order to get them away sooner.

Any of those options aren’t ones I’d ordinarily consider for mid-summer, but that’s the circumstance I’m in. Getting that main second cut of silage in will go a long way in showing where the bale count will be for the winter.

While I hope the next winter period won’t be as long as the last one, I still need to prepare for the fact that it could go on for as long.

If that’s the case, I need to be aware of what feed is on hand and what I can do to reduce demand.

Breeding is on the wind down, and scanning for the replacement heifers is on the cards for the start of August. The bull who was with them is currently with the first calvers, while the older bull went in with the late calving young cows last week.

Those scanning results will play their part in working out the winter feed demand too.

Maybe, just maybe, things will improve in August.