Building grass covers: Over the past two months, good grassland management will have focused on managing grass quality and taking out heavy covers as silage. From now on, the focus should be shifting towards building grass covers to extend grazing into the autumn. Grazing rotations should be starting to increase by 1 -1.5 days per week from now onwards.

Therefore, if your rotation length is currently 16 days, by the end of August it should be 24 days. Applying 25 to 30 units of nitrogen/acre will keep grass growth ahead of cattle over the next month and will help to build covers in the current favourable growing conditions.

As silage ground rejoins the grazing platform, you can increase grazing rotations quickly. The longer rotation will give grazed paddocks more time to recover as the season progresses and growth rates start to drop. It’s been a really good year for grass growth in the northern half of the country.

Is there an opportunity to take out a field for reseeding? This won’t help to build grass covers but it will increase the amount of grass you can grow on your farm in the long term. Suckler farmers should be targeting to reseed between 5-10% of their farm every year. Make sure you address any soil fertility problems before you embark on any reseeding programme. Use the reseeding as an opportunity to incorporate some clover into your swards.

Lungworm activity: I was speaking to a few farmers this week who have seen an increased amount of coughing in weanlings over the last two weeks. The warm weather and rain at the weekend will likely see increased worm activity on farms.

Faecal samples won’t pick up lungworm infection, and it’s important to monitor animals for signs of coughing when herding. Ivermectin based products will give an instant kill and will have a three to four week residual activity period. White/yellow drenches will not give as severe a kill and may be a better choice where you think there is a bad lungworm infection.

Farm Safety Week: This week is Farm Safety Week. While farm safety should be at the forefront of our thoughts every week of the year, this week can be used as an excuse to kickstart some actions on your farm. When you speak to farm accident survivors or families who have lost loved ones in farm accidents they always say they never thought it would be them.

The reality is it could be any one of us and while accidents will always happen, we can carry out some simple steps to avoid the chances of them occurring. Are there two positive changes that could be completed around the farm this week to increase farm safety? Are there signs around the yard highlighting dangers to people? Is the first aid kit well stocked up and does everyone on the farm know where it is stored? Are all slurry tank manhole covers in good condition? These are just a few simple questions to ask.

Take ten minutes this week to think and talk about farm safety on your farm.