All cattle are now housed, except for 13 weanling heifers. They too should be housed, but until I get rid of a batch of cull cows, I haven’t enough room in the shed for them.

The cows will be sold live through the mart this week. I have been feeding them for about six weeks and while they have a covering of flesh, they’re not yet ready for killing and will require further feeding. At this point, they are just surplus to my requirements.

Taking up space

They are taking up space in the shed that I need for other cattle and my annual herd test is coming up and I want them gone before it takes place.

The weanling heifers that I mentioned earlier have been grazed on a piece of land away from the main yard for the last month and have only just been brought home at the weekend.

I haven’t yet had a chance to weigh them, but at a glance they look to have performed well.

As soon as I have space, they will be housed and weighed. They were dosed with an ivermectin-based pour-on a couple of months ago, but I noticed quite a bit of coughing in recent days.

They will obviously be dosed again at housing, which will hopefully sort the problem.

Land type

It’s amazing how much land type can change over a very short distance.

Much of my home farm is heavy in nature and was almost past grazing a month ago.

I also haven’t applied much lime over the last couple years either, so a soil test is definitely needed

The field that had been grazing the weanling heifers is less than a mile from the yard, but is much more free-draining. I have never seen it ploughed, but would suspect a gravel bottom.

This land is still hard and if I hadn’t run out of grass on it, it would be capable of grazing cattle for probably another month.

Fertiliser

I have noticed recently that some of my fields are looking a little yellow, even though they received fertiliser just before the closing deadline.

The only thing that I can put this down to is that because we had such a good growing season over the summer, I got away with spreading a lot less fertiliser.

I suspect the reduced amount of P and K is now showing itself in the form of reduced response to the nitrogen applied. I’m due to soil test the whole farm in January, as I haven’t tested anything for a few years.

I also haven’t applied much lime over the last couple years either, so a soil test is definitely needed.

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Farmer Writes: cattle housed in Donegal