Farmer Focus: Stock are thriving on high-quality grass

June was quite a month. We have had scorching temperatures, lashing rain, hailstones, thunder, lightning and a whole lot of grass growth.

It has been a month of extremes that has set us up for a pretty fruitful grazing season.

Silage crops have also been really strong, though quite hard to plan with the catchy weather and contractors backlogged. The stock are looking fantastic and are clearly thriving on high-quality grass.

See also: How to manage your farm boss to influence decision-making

About the author

Duncan Morrison

Duncan farms owned and tenanted land with his wife, Claire in Aberdeenshire. They run a small Lleyn ewe flock and around 260 Aberdeen Angus and Stabiliser cows and are a QMS Monitor Farm. Operating a low-cost system, stock are outwintered on deferred grass, bale grazing and forage crops.

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It has been a hectic month without much let up, with mowing, baling, topping, shearing and a load of cattle work happening almost simultaneously.

We have been grateful to have some extra assistance drafted in in recent weeks, which has helped keep all the plates spinning.

Day to day, it is normally just myself and our full-time member of staff, Alec. But when so much needs to be done at around the same time it is a great help to have another useful pair of hands.

There is always some relief to get our artificial insemination programme completed and stock bulls out to the cows. It is probably the most excited I have ever been for a breeding season, with some interesting genetics coming through the pipeline.

We are hosting our final summer Monitor Farm open day in early July and the theme is decision-making.

I think it is such an interesting topic and look forward to hearing from the speakers. Much in life and business doesn’t come down to your skills, knowledge or resources. Rather, it’s the decisions you make, how you make the most of what you have and who you choose to involve in your business.

Our business has come a long way since the beginning of the Monitor Farm programme and it will be a useful exercise to discuss our next steps and how we keep making the most of what we have.

One decision I regret is buying my Ford Ranger, which has just boarded a recovery lorry for the fourth time, after breaking down while delivering a bull.

I am very grateful that I had a good friend nearby who kindly helped me out and the bull got to his new herd on time.

That, as well as the gearbox on the topper destroying itself this week, reminded me why I prefer livestock to anything made of metal.