Last year we got no hay made. This year, we were determined not to make the same mistake.

For all the wrong reasons, we missed the weather window at the end of June but last week was forecast to get better and better so we took the plunge and cut all the grass intended for hay on Friday.

Given the forecast, we turned it on Saturday but on Sunday morning it was clear that it wasn’t just a heavy dew we had during the night but actual rain. It was back to square one and as I write we hope to bale this week.

Meanwhile, the quality of the material is not improving. As a last resort, we will wrap it and have expensive, very mediocre silage.

On any reckoning, it looks like we will need all the silage and hay we can get, given the low yield of our first cut.

In the meantime, we have pretty well finished selling our shed cattle and just as well with the factory price having dropped so quickly.

Seasonal decline

Seeing as we are into mid-July we can expect a seasonal decline but it pinpoints the desirability of having all the shed cattle gone by early to mid-June.

The lessons from the Fethard dairy beef open day were well made.

On the crop side, it is now just a question of waiting for the winter barley to come fully ripe. We have forward sold about 50% of the expected yield. We will then see what the rest is worth but the recent drop in international prices has dampened my expectations. We will try to bale the straw into 4x4 round bales as soon as it is ready.

We have applied Roundup to the oilseed rape and the poppies in the small field of winter barley that I mentioned last week.

The next job is to make sure the seed winter wheat passes its Department inspection.

There is zero tolerance for wild oats but the field appears totally clear. However, we will have to strim around the headland.

Normally, that job coincides with the ripening of the gluten-free oats but with it being spring-sown this year we won’t do that job for a few weeks yet.