We should get some nice dry weather this week to get the last of the silage for the year harvested and ensiled in our new silage pit. We are a little later than usual with this cut as we were waiting for the last of the concrete to cure fully before putting silage in on top of it. We had a lot of bales made through the summer, so we decided to wait for the pit rather than wrapping any more.

We should get the silage cut and ensiled in time to get fertiliser back out on these paddocks before Monday’s deadline. The rest of the farm will be blanket-spread before the weekend as well. We will go with some protected urea again for the last round of fertiliser, as the results have been excellent from this product right through the year.

Growth and ground conditions will probably help with that decision over the next few months

We might get to graze some of the after-grass from this cut before the end of the year or we have the option of carrying it over the winter for an early bite of grass next spring. Growth and ground conditions will probably help with that decision over the next few months.

We should also get a good opportunity to empty the slurry tanks on to this ground with the umbilical system next week and start getting the farm set up for the winter. We still have some cubicles to add before the winter and we have a few slurry handling decisions to make over the next few weeks.

Milk yield

The new milking parlour is working better and faster every day. It’s also starting to gather a lot of data for us. Milk yield is recorded at every milking, but milking speed and milking duration is also recorded at every milking. This will become valuable at the end of the year when we decide which cows to cull and which to give a beef straw to next breeding season.

We are also getting a conductivity report on some cows which may not give the most accurate prediction of issues associated with cell count or mastitis but when we milk-record over the next couple of months, we can compare notes and see if there is any correlation between the two sources of data.

Our new commissioner Mairead McGuinness is an excellent choice to take up the vacant position left by Phil Hogan

Off farm, we have a lot of change in Europe this week. Our new commissioner Mairead McGuinness is an excellent choice to take up the vacant position left by Phil Hogan and will do an excellent job representing national interests and agricultural interests, where possible, in the European Commission.

Louth dairy farmer Colm Markey has taken a huge promotion from county councillor to MEP to replace McGuinness in the European Parliament. He has a wealth of experience in Europe from his time as Macra president and should also do a great job representing farming interests in Brussels and Strasbourg.

Hopefully, our newest Minister for Agriculture here in Ireland will do as good a job at representing farmers in the Dáil and at the cabinet table

Both appointments, with farms at home to concentrate their minds, should look after our interests very well in Europe. It has to be seen as a nod to the importance of agriculture to the Irish economy that the Government has made these appointments to represent us in Europe and possibly compensating for some recent issues on the home front.

Hopefully, our newest Minister for Agriculture here in Ireland will do as good a job at representing farmers in the Dáil and at the cabinet table. We might have expected a bit of a re-shuffle of the ministerial pack when looking to fill the key agricultural portfolio for the next few years.

In my opinion, it feels a little bit like we’ve been allocated the next taxi off the rank, but hopefully Minister McConalogue can step up to the plate and represent us well both at home and in Europe at a crucial time for farmers as we work through.