George Ellis

1st April 2022

March

 I've been busy planting trees (total 560) for tree and shelter belts; getting a shed ready for calves to be bucket reared (first lot came today); lambing for my aunt and looking after the ewes indoors. Started measuring the grass more regularly here, grass growth is now 9kg DM/day, it was 4kg DM/ day the week before. Grass analysis of some permanent pasture came back at 22.5% protein and 11.3ME, just shows the power of the grass!

April

Ewes were set stocked in lambing groups with singles and doubles in separate fields for lambing this year. We hit the ground running this year with 8% of ewes doing the business on their due date. Happy with lamb sizes as it’s something I worry about getting right. Considering none of the ewes have lambed before, I couldn’t be happier with how they’re performing.

I’m hoping to do a trial comparing the growth rates of weaned lambs on ryegrass and clover with those on clover, chicory and plantain this year. So far 12acres have been subsoiled, disced twice and rolled – but with no rain on the two-week forecast, it might be May before the clover and plantain mix goes in.

My mother and I got the 40 calves we were aiming to get this spring. Frustrating levels of scours early on have been confirmed as Cryptosporidium by the vets but thankfully they have gotten over it ok. Our first boxed beef came back and sold incredibly fast which was very encouraging – we will be doing more!

May

Lambs are growing well now, at four weeks, the cocci count came back at 147,000 which was dealt with quickly. Ewes and lambs are mobbed up and rotating around the farm. This year is the first proper year of a rotation as I can have 200 ewes with lambs on 1-hectare paddocks. Grass growth hasn’t peaked anything like last year so fingers are crossed it keeps growing later in the year.

Silage was cut three weeks earlier this time and I’m confident analysis will be much better now too.

The new clover sward has taken well although weeds are plentiful after not being able to get a weed chit prior to drilling. Hopefully, the lambs enjoy the variety!

August

Still very dry here, 22mm of rain the other day made the grass green but nothing to make a significant impact. All the cattle are in the sheds and all the sheep are in confinement eating silage. I’ve just started supplementing the leanest ewes with grain to put some condition back on before tupping (only about 10 weeks left to go!). The clover, plantain mix put in the spring was grazed once lightly but never got away with lack of moisture (total rain for year 231mm). This exceptionally dry year and the previous summers have left some food for thought. After the ryegrass has burnt off the last four summers should we be using more alternative forage going forward?