My second-cut silage was harvested last week. As we were putting it in, it dawned on me that this is the first year in I don’t know how many that I didn’t have cows in the shed due to bad weather while we were harvesting.

I’m usually telling my contractor to “empty a wagon load of grass in front of those cows, save me opening bales for a few days”. But not this year - this year is different.

I would usually have some calves weaned at this stage, generally out of necessity, as grass growth would normally have dropped well back. Other years ground conditions would have deteriorated, leaving me unable to operate at my usual high stocking rate.

This year, however, grass is still growing over 90kg DM/ha so I’m left wondering what is the sensible thing to do. Do I keep the calves on their mothers for as long as I can? Do I start to wean, although I’m really under no pressure to do so? I’ve decided to scan all my cows and wean the empty ones at least. I’ll play it by ear after that.

As I intend to finish my bulls for the first time this year, I’ll be short the cashflow said bulls usually bring me in November, when I sell them to a local finisher. To try to help fill this gap, I’m hoping to have cull cows ready to kill or sell around this time, so I want to have the calves off them and built up to a high level of concentrate in good time - although the calves are probably gaining more weight on the cows than they will off them. Maybe I should rephrase that: they are probably gaining cheaper weight on the cows, as once weaned they will be fed concentrate.

The economics of having a suckler cow that’s calved maybe eight to nine months, eating top-quality grass is probably highly questionable but the novelty of having a year without constant torture is nice. It’s also nice to be able to make a management decision on something without being forced in to making it because of the weather.

I feel a little guilty writing this when I see the articles my colleagues in the south are writing, but I must remember that this is very must the exception and not the norm for this part of Donegal and enjoy it while I can.