When I was a young man, there was an old retired neighbouring farmer who, on a Sunday morning, would sit on his milk stand (remember those) at the end of his farm lane.

His friends would arrive in cars and set out deck chairs, then sit listening to him pontificating - very often about the weather.

His favourite time was in the spring when he would quote “if the wind be in the northeast on 21 March he will still be there on 21 June” - so far this is proving true.

He would go to Stow Horse Fair (the English equivalent of Ballinasloe) and take bets on it. He was most often correct and so it is proving this year to the detriment of my grazing plans.

Turn-out

We turned out a month ago - how different from last year. On 21 March, the weather turned dry and fine, with cold freezing nights and warm sunny days - and without the rain of last year, which we could well do with, since the wind is still in the northeast – and grass growth is zero.

Last autumn, trying to repair the damage of the previous spring, 25ac were prepared for reseeding, but rain stopped play for a month and we tried throwing it off the quad bike, which met with very limited success.

Now we have turned the silage grounds into grazing paddocks and will have to rent grass off-farm for silage. This comes at a time of concern: after the first round of grazing, the paddocks are only about half of what they should be.

Sacrifice paddock

As we are grazing cows by day and feeding silage in a sacrifice paddock at night - to good effect - yields have risen from 23 litres/day to 30 litres/day. They always say when food is short, farmers feed cows properly.

We are still closed up with TB, awaiting our second clear test, and the spring-born calves are bursting out of their accommodation.

The horses have been kicked out of the stables to provide calf accommodation - so far, so good. Health has been good, cows have been calving OK up until now, but we are starting to get some reluctant calvers who need assistance.

These late-calving animals are always a nuisance because I feel they do not get the benefit of the spring grass - the benefit of the first flush - and although we turn over to beef inseminations halfway through the run with the beef bull, we are having some Friesian heifer calves which I feel we should cull, because they do not fit either spring or autumn rearing.

Having installed a set of weighing scales, we are very excited - regularly weighing the young stock and the cows. I do not know if it is expected, but the cows have lost some weight since turn-out. At least they are now gaining weight.

Cull rates

The cull rates on the cattle are quite interesting. When I attended the Total Dairy Conference last autumn, in one breakout session a farmer admitted to having a 35% cull rate.

Most of the farmers in the room were understandably gobsmacked, but he explained his rationale: calves not growing at the expected rate (rather than treating for worms, etc) were taken out of the system, also cows which did not meet target yields at 100 days - they were effectively dead weight, unable to genetically cope with his regime.

It seemed brutal at first, but when you think about it, he was breeding healthy cattle that could cope.

He had a good genetic turnover of animals that would thrive and I’m beginning to wonder if there is mileage in the system now that we have the tools to evaluate.

As I keep reminding the next generation - if you don’t measure, you can’t evaluate; if you can’t evaluate, you can’t change; and if you can’t change, you don’t improve.