We are down to single figures left to calve now on the farm, with just eight stragglers left. Calving went very well this year with very few hiccups.

Having good room in the sheds with extra cubicle spaces and plenty of feed room helped this, I think, as cows were very relaxed and comfortable. Feeding the soya and oats two weeks pre-calving is also a great job, I feel.

We have just under 70% of the platform grazed. We kept the cows in for a day last week when we got 20mm of rain overnight, but we were lucky to be able to get them back out the next day. They were not happy to be in that day and stood at the gate of the shed to get out after both milkings for a while. It just shows that they prefer to be out, eating grass.

We finally got some more slurry out two weeks ago on 20% of the grazing platform at 2,000 gallons per acre. We got the contractor in with the umbilical pipes.

I also spread some fertiliser on our drier silage fields and the few paddocks at home that had not received any slurry or fertiliser yet. The silage ground got three bags per acre of 29-0-14 plus sulphur (protected urea) and just under one bag per acre of potash. The few paddocks at home got one bag per acre of 30-0-6 plus sulphur.

We have had the hoof parer here in the last few weeks.

Cows had drops and scalds, mainly from the roadway being wet and sloppy, and longer walks, although I am alternating night and morning grazings with near and far paddocks to take some pressure off the cows.

We had our discussion group meeting recently and some farmers were talking about problems they were having with calves getting coccidiosis in the sheds.

We had no problems at the time, but always dose the calves with Bovicox at turnout. But, sure enough, the next weekend we had some calves showing signs of scour.

I went in and dosed them all straight away and luckily, that looks to have cleared it up very quickly. If it wasn’t for the other farmers already having the problem and discussing it at the meeting, I might not have gone in as quick.

Dr Brendan Horan of Teagasc spoke at that meeting about stocking rates and costs.

Even if your milking platform is growing 16t DM/ha, if you are stocked above 3LU/ha these cows are producing marginal milk

A striking comment for me was that last year was the second highest milk price we have received but it was one of the lowest profit years in the last decade.

He also reiterated the value of grazed grass and the importance of an appropriate stocking rate.

The research shows that silage and zero-grazing are at least double the cost of grazed grass and concentrates are almost five times the cost of grazed grass.

Even if your milking platform is growing 16t DM/ha, if you are stocked above 3LU/ha these cows are producing marginal milk.

We have all shifted to a higher milking platform stocking rate in the last number of years but our grass grown, on average, has not increased and our concentrate fed per cow has increased.

I was delighted to see Tirlán increase the milk price by 2c/l for February, but as seen from our meeting with Brendan, more rises are needed to counteract the high input prices.