Ground conditions are becoming tricky to manage on some of the farms operating on heavier land as rain becomes increasingly frequent.

While grass availability in not an issue, dry matter is much lower at the moment and this is affecting lamb growth rates and being shown up on the farms that are regularly weighing animals. That said, reported weight gains are still good at around 250g/day.

The farmers also had a recent virtual meeting which was a good chance to compare what is happening on the individual farms at present.

Trevor Nixon, Bellanaleck, Co Fermanagh

Trevor was busy last week harvesting his second-cut silage. It has been an excellent growing year so far on the farm.

Surplus grass has also been saved as hay and round bale silage. Now that the second cut has been saved, Trevor will be starting to concentrate on capturing more flock data utilising his EID recording system.

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