I farm: “I have been farming full-time for 10 years since I finished agricultural college. I farm in partnership with my father, Thomas.”

Farm details: “We run a suckler herd of 120 cows evenly split between spring and summer calving along with 250 crossbred ewes. The farm consists of 200 acres of upland grassland with another 200 acres of mountain ground rented annually.”

Farm system: “The suckler cattle are marketed through two markets. The heifers are usually pushed on for finishing, while the bullocks are sold as a mix of strong weanlings or store cattle depending on what the trade is doing. We have finished our male cattle as bulls in the past. The lambs are all sold fat, with around two-thirds of lambs being sold through our local producer group and the remainder sold in the live ring.”

Silage: “Winter forage has been the main focus for this week. We cut 15 acres of grass on Saturday and lifted it on Monday afternoon. A contractor lifted the grass using a trailed harvester and ensiled it in the clamp. There are another 10 acres of grass to cut this week, weather depending. The plan is to bale this grass.”

Delayed harvest: “We only had 25 acres of second cut to save but it was ready for harvesting back in late August. Wet weather and difficult ground conditions have delayed cutting until now. We were also relying on the availability of the contractor who had other customers to deal with.”

Cattle housed: “The spring-calving cows are housed, along with finishing cattle and stores. Only the summer calving cows are at grass but they will be housed shortly. Cattle have just been wormed and vaccinated for pneumonia.”

Sheep: “We turned five rams out to 180 ewes late last week so we will start lambing again from late March to early April.”

Outlook for winter: “I think we should have enough silage saved after getting grass harvested this week. It all depends on an early spring. We had silage leftover from last year which has been a big advantage and it will be used in the coming weeks. However, with earlier housing I think slurry storage is more likely to be the issue on our farm. We will need a good spring to ease the pressure on tanks.”

Quotable quote: “Farming is so weather dependent. You can plan out when you want to get silage harvested, but the weather will determine when jobs get done.”