Swallows were swirling about in the sunshine on Monday afternoon. It was an enjoyable sight and one I was wondering if we’d see for a while, as sea mist descended on the locality for a good share of Friday and Saturday.

I know rain is on the way again at the weekend, but that window of sunshine on Sunday and Monday was good for the spirits.

With temperatures up, that expected rain will power on grass growth after a cool April, and plans have moved from dealing with low covers to managing a grass surplus.

It never ceases to amaze me how fast things turn around once we hit May.

The heat can do a bit more work on the ground closed for silage too, but I expect some of that to be fit in a few weeks.

Reseeding

In the meantime, I took the opportunity to reseed a few paddocks and I expect the majority of it will be finished on the grazing ground by next week.

Stitching, using a grass harrow and seeder, has been the method of choice in recent years.

From experience, I’ve learned it’s not as effective from the middle of May onwards. Paddocks reseeded via that method in late June and July don’t seem to have the same success rate.

It wouldn’t be everyone’s favoured reseeding method but I’ve been happy with how it has worked out the last few years. There’s a cost saving, due to less time and inputs involved, and the ground is ready to be grazed whenever needed.

I find letting stock in to graze ground that was stitched within a week or 10 days is helpful as it lets light down to the young plants.

They proved their worth in the dry summer last year, so it’s multispecies swards across the board again. The first paddock of it that I stitched in back in 2019 still has a good hit of chicory and plantain present so that’s a good test of it.

I went with the standard mix on ground that could be used for a cut or two of silage, and on the paddocks that are primarily used for grazing I topped the levels of plantain and chicory.

The mixes I began trialling here had higher levels of those plants compared to the 2022 MSS scheme mix, so I reverted to what I started with.

It was probably a shot in the dark by myself and the seed merchant back in 2018 when I broadcast a few bags during that summer drought. From there it’s been a constant experiment and has resulted in a fair share of tweaks to a grazing plan that was constant for so many years.

Fertiliser

Initially driven by high fertiliser costs in 2022, artificial nitrogen was reduced on the grazing platform last year. Clover kicks in from May, slurry is the fertiliser of choice until late June and with no rain until the last days of August.

The end result was that only five acres of the grazing platform got bagged nitrogen. It was very much play-it-by-ear, but a legacy of that will see it only used for silage crops this year.

I don’t know if you’d call using them future proofing the business or not, but they’ve contributed to a number of financial savings without adversely affecting production.

In the drystock sector, trying to keep a lid on those variable costs is and always will be one of the core things to focus on.