Time to start assessing cattle

It may seem a long way off, but next winter is only 120 to 150 days away for your cattle, depending on your location. With this in mind, you need to start assessing your stock, to see if they are on target for your intended use.

Many of you will have already cut your first cut grass silage, or plan to do so once weather allows. At this stage, you have determined the quality of the base feed that you will feed for all of next winter. The quality of what is in the pit is determined by your sward quality, fertiliser application, weed control, soil fertility, and cutting date etc, for both your first and second cuts.

So the die is cast in relation to silage quality. How about the stock that will be fed this silage over the winter? As I mentioned earlier, it makes up the base of almost all diets on Irish beef farms.