Last week we began tentatively grazing some of the store cattle in dry paddocks nearest the yard.

We just let them out for a few hours by day and then they came in for their evening silage. It sounds laboursome but it is surprising how quickly they get used to the routine.

We began by grazing paddocks with heavy covers with the intention of then going out with well-agitated slurry.

We had to postpone the slurry and the early grazing because of heavy rain that left the land soft everywhere again.

Mostly, my experience of forward selling winter barley has been positive

This also postponed application of fertiliser to the oilseed rape and winter barley. We have pretty well all the fertiliser ordered so the recent price increases, at least for this year, shouldn’t affect us too badly. One of my perennial questions that I ask myself at this time of the year is should we forward sell?

Mostly, my experience of forward selling winter barley has been positive. Last year, it was one of the few aspects of the harvest that worked out well when we forward sold about two-thirds of our expected yield.

This year, the prices have been all over the place but, in general, the trend has been up with prices increasing by at least €10/t from this time last year.

But the variations from one week to the next can be substantial so I am going to wait and see on the basis that I presume we will not have a collapse in price.

That experience certainly left me more cautious

A number of years ago, I forward sold at a price well below the eventual harvest price and was left nursing losses. That experience certainly left me more cautious and I will wait until mid- to late April before deciding to sell or just wait for the harvest.

Meanwhile, last week we bought our first load of store cattle for the grass.

While pleased enough with the quality as they came off the truck I reckon they are roughly €60/head dearer than last year while beef prices are broadly similar.

Here again, that will mean the eventual margin will obviously depend on how much weight they gain at grass and whether we have cattle that will grade well enough to collect the bonus payments.