Cattle being produced as beef at this time of the year are costing a lot.

They have borne the entire cost of a long winter and while silage may be the bulk of the diet, they need concentrates and minerals to achieve an acceptable level of finish.

Last week, I said that we would hold on for the moment in the face of reduced prices, but we can only hold on so long.

Once cattle are finished, ideally to a 3= or 3+ it’s time to let them go and so we will let a load go this week.

The quoted price is well back on the last load of a fortnight ago and we have bought in all the cattle we need for the moment, so every 5c/kg reduction represents a significant drop from where we hoped to be.

The new cattle we have bought for grass are about 20-25kg less in weight than last year but costing more so a drop in beef prices is the last thing we need.

We can only aim to maximise production from the stores on the rapidly growing high quality grass at this time of the year.

The new stores have all been vaccinated and will get a worm dose in a few weeks.

On the tillage front, we continue to see useful active ingredients in plant protection products disappear.

Specialises

It really came home to me during the week when a company that specialises in testing new products pulled out of an arrangement. We were approached a few months ago to make about a half an acre in some winter wheat and winter barley available for trial work.

We had agreed terms etc and were happy that there would be no real interference with the general programme. It really meant simply turning off the sprayer as it went over the marked out ground.

However, during the week they rang up to say that the hoped-for test products were not in fact going to be trialled as they were unlikely to be aimed at the Irish market in present conditions.

Given the futures prices and the trends in tillage acreage, I wasn’t that surprised but if we don’t have new products coming forward to replace those that are being lost, then the outlook is grim.

As I mentioned last week, we are already, with the removal of the anti-barley yellow dwarf virus seed dressing, seeing a resurgence of the problem in our Cassia barley.

We also have an infestation of aphids in the beans, but all in all the crops look incomparably better than this time last year.

It’s now a question of keeping on top of the disease pressure to try and ensure that they fulfill their potential to the greatest extent possible, all the more so with the disappointing forward prices on offer.