The grass cover on Tullamore Farm this week is 846kg DM/ha, which has decreased by 131kg DM/ha from last week’s grass cover.

This is due to extra ground being taken out for silage, which brings the average farm cover closer to target for this time of year.

The average growth rate per day has increased to 71kg DM/ha/day, with the demand per day settling at 49kg DM/ha/day.

Tullamore Farm manager Shaun Diver comments: "Today, I spread a half of bag of urea per acre on 50 acres of grazing ground, which should hopefully increase the growth next week.

"We might have been able to get away without spreading the round of urea this week, but on this farm, we need to grow the grass when conditions are right, as the farm tends to get too dry later into the summer.”

Last week, Shaun mentioned that one paddock of six acres on the farm had become too strong to be used for grazing.

The grass cover on this paddock was 3,000kg DM this week. This paddock has since been mowed on Wednesday and baled on Friday morning before the rain.

Cows

Breeding is continuing on the farm, with 24 out of 41 heifers and 41 out of 80 cows served so far.

All cows that have calved have been moved to the outfarm in Cloonagh. There are currently two large batches of 38 cows grazing on the outfarm.

There is one teaser bull with each group of cows and both have heat detection collars, which corresponds to the cow’s tags which aids in heat detection.

Lambing

Lambing has finished on the farm this week. With the busy season over, it is now time to focus on other tasks on the farm.

Shaun said: “The next big job on the farm is to footbath lambs, as a number of lambs have got scald.

"We also plan on weighing any lambs that are 40 days old in order to keep a record of their performance for the Sheep Ireland LambPlus programme."