Jim Dwyer plans to reclaim land to boost production

Cold and windy weather dominates the farming scene. We made our silage in two halves, the first half was made in showery weather and the second in ideal conditions. On the upside, we now have our pits full for the first time in four years. This means we can now reduce nitrogen and we will not have to make a second cut of silage.

We will get some extra bales of silage from surplus on paddocks and this will give us enough feed for winter. Due to the wet weather we have been unable to get our kale sown, but hopefully by the time you read this it will be in. This is later than I would like, but with plenty of moisture it should get growing quickly.

Milk is holding well at 1.7kg milk solids despite difficult grazing conditions. Breeding seems to have gone well with a submission rate of 95% and a non-return rate of 35%.

Four of the cows had to get CIDRS and we never had to call a vet for non-cycling cows which keeps the cost of breeding down. There is no doubt having very few retained placentas at calving has paid off. Our herd has a very high index for fertility on our economic breeding index and this is now shown at ground level.

By the time this column is published the bulls will be in with the cows and a lot of intensive work for the year will be over. We have decided to do some land reclamination on a wet part of the farm and while it is a big investment, hopefully we will see the benefits in greater farm output in the future.