It’s not often we get through the first half of the year without a bit of a grass scare, but I have to say, this season has gone smoother than most here in Abbeyleix.

For the first time in a good few years, we haven’t hit that usual pinch point where you’re scrambling to hold covers or getting caught out by a dry spell.

The rain came just when we needed it, and with the heat hanging around since spring, growth has been ticking along nicely – not too fast to get ahead of us, but enough to keep the cows motoring.

We’ve been matching supply and demand pretty well since the back end of April. Grass growth last week hit 81kg DM/ha, and we’re sitting on a cover per cow of 183kg DM/LU, which I’m very happy with.

I pre-mowed the last few hairy paddocks this week to clean them up, and that’s really improved quality heading into the next rotation. It’s lovely stuff now – leafy, fresh, and ideal for driving milk solids.

The cows have been flying it in fairness. Yields have stayed between 25-27 litres, and solids are holding well at around 4.25% fat and 3.75% protein.

With good grass under them, they’re not working too hard, and you can see it in their coats and condition. It’s good to see that kind of performance off mostly grass. We are still feeding 4kg of nuts. It just goes to show that when the weather plays ball and grass quality is right, it does half the work for you.

Somatic cell count crept up slightly this month, now sitting at 153,000. We did have one cow showing clots, who has been a repeat offender in the past.

I treated her with garlic tubes this time around rather than antibiotics, as she’s already marked for culling later this year. I think there’s no sense using an antibiotic tube unless absolutely necessary on a cow that won’t be in the herd long-term.

That one case likely pushed up the bulk tank SCC more than usual, but overall I’m happy with cell count across the herd.

We got all the cubicle sheds and calf sheds power washed over the last few weeks. It’s always one of those jobs that can sit on the list longer than it should, so I was glad to get it out of the way early.

Big thanks to Cathal, our neighbour who’s just out of TY. He was looking for a bit of summer work and fair play to him, he got stuck in and did a great job.

He’s handy around the yard too, so I’ll be keeping him on for a few other bits. It’s great to see young fellas taking an interest in the work – they’re the future after all.

Reseeding

Last weekend, I took advantage of the excellent weather and got the silage block reseeded. Conditions couldn’t have been better.

After sowing, Dad gave it a roll with the ring roller, and I’ll go over it again with the flat roller once the new grass is up and showing.The mix I used included Aberclyde, Barwave, Abermagic, Aberwolf, and white clover, sown at 15kg/acre. It’s a proven combination for both yield and quality, and I’m hoping to see a quick, even strike over the coming weeks.

We also took the second-cut of bales off the red clover sward, but to be honest, there’s very little red clover left in it now. After three years, it’s faded quite a bit, which seems to be the common experience when I talk to other farmers locally.

For the next cut, I’ll likely spread two bags/acre of 19-0-15 to try and make up for the drop-off in nitrogen fixation and keep grass quality up.

We’ll be scanning the heifers this Friday, and to be honest, I’m a bit anxious about the results after our issue with the first round of sexed semen only holding with 15%.

That said, fewer repeats have shown up from the second round, so I’m hoping it’s not as bad as initially feared.

We’re also scanning the cows this week, and unfortunately we’ve had eight cows repeat at around 50 days post-AI, so far. It’s frustrating, particularly given the ideal weather, good nutrition, and lack of stress on the cows this year.

In some cases, I’d seen them pop up on the collars and hoped they were false heats, but sure enough, when I went to check them they had skinned tail heads and marked hips – clear signs of bulling.