Silage ground was late to be taken up this spring due to the poor weather conditions in February and early March, which delayed the turnout of stock.

The decision was taken to graze all silage ground, even though it meant a delayed closing date for silage.

It was important to graze off the dead matter that built up over winter months, as this can lower the dry matter digestibility (DMD) of the resulting silage crop.

High-quality silage is a must if a dairy calf-to-beef system is to stand a chance of being profitable. Having to supplement poor-quality silage with higher levels of concentrate feed will have a significant impact on wintering costs.

Grass supply on farm is good with enough rain received last week to kick growth on again.

While crops are not massive, grass quality is excellent. A 12-acre field returned 88 bales after a 36-hour wilt period, so we are happy with that.

Grazing ground

While there was some concerns last week in relation to grass supply on the farm in the medium term, after a good 10mm to 12mm of rain on Thursday night last week, it has taken the pressure off and things are visibly greener and growing over the past few days.

Yearlings

Once silage is completed, the next task will be to get the yearlings in for weighing to see how they have performed over the first 10 weeks at grass.

Looking at them, they seem to be doing very well. There is really no excuse for them, with good grass under their heads and near-perfect grazing conditions since they left the shed. However, the weigh scales will reveal all.

Calves

We are down to the last 31 calves on once-a-day milk. They are eating their kilo of meal and will be weaned in about a week’s time.

The last batch of 31 calves will be weaned off milk next week.

There is another batch of eight that will not be fit for weaning at that stage and will have to remain on milk.

These were the last calves taken in and the benefit of getting all calves in early really hits home when you compare these eight to the rest out in the fields.