Beef grazing 2024

Struggle is an understatement of the current situation. Its a battle between in and out. Have one group of yearling heifers who went out for the 3rd time on Thursday. All stock were stood off for most of last week.

No fert out at all but hope to hit some spots this week with urea.

Store bullocks, finishing bullocks and cows are still in. With the weather i sorted thru bullocks and picked out 4 more that were destined for grass only to switch them to finish out of the shed.

A tough winter and spring is an understatement for what has gone on since late june.

All cattle going out here in the next 2 days,..ground seems OK today

Heaviest are out on v dry but rocky 5 acres, plenty of grass on it but they are mowing thru it.…all water

The remainder are still in, down to the last week of feed...back end last year caught me

Can't see stock thriving til 3rd week of month at earliest now so I've gotten a good rate for silage ground to rent it out

Will keep stock numbers at present rate & bale up excess grass at 6-8weeks weather permitting.

Had an airseeder fitted to our Rakeman 3000 but sold the airseeder and replaced it with a guttler seeder - no comparison…..

Serious money but we’ll worth it.

Let some out this morning to take the pressure off the slurry tank for a day or two.

Have to see how this storm goes over the weekend. 🫣

That is the danger and there is no guarantee that it will clear. People should start putting plans in place to deal with worst case scenario. The plan hopefully may never be implemented but it will give clarity on the next steps required.

Just to add to the weather issues 🙈

yes. A wet one.

Sadly it’s all ground this year

Have a bunch out, heavier lad in until Thursday and hopefully weather stays right.

Had to gun some slurry out a few weeks ago and some is caked on the grass.

Will the cattle eat around it or should I fence it off?

Will probably have to chain harrow it or top that section.

Teagasc lad saying close ground for silage.

No problem boss. I have the entire place closed since Oct.

Thankfully a few light going out today but most of the place is still too wet but drying quickly.

In fairness to the Teagasc lad, he was very aware of the reality for many.

depends on the type of ground you have…..some fields I have here they'd sink to their oxters and turn it into a soup of shite in no time, others it would be very light poaching even with heavy two year olds

They were dosed with Dectomax 3 weeks before housing and dosed with Fluconix around christmas. That's all they got.

Grass is starting to bubble up here now. A bit of decent weather to dry things up a bit and then we can start thinking about letting some stock out.