Friday 1 March saw the wet and milder weather we saw for much of February turn to bitter cold and a dusting of snow in many areas.

The saying of March ‘entering like a lion and leaving like a lamb’ would have been in the minds of many as they looked out on to white fields and yards.

Very few farmers I have spoken to in recent weeks were meeting their spring rotation planner targets and this was no fault of their own, with the dreadful weather conditions leading to more off grazing than on grazing.

As I alluded to last week, the issue that this presents is that with this ground not grazed off in February, there could come a pinch point in the second rotation.

All the while, when cattle and cows are not eating grass, they have to be fed with expensive and (now) scarce silage.

Problems

In an effort to correct the two problems with one blow, while limiting damage to paddocks, it might be necessary to focus on getting some lighter youngstock, such as weanlings or yearlings, out to grass to firstly get covers grazed off and get grass kickstarted again and, secondly, to reduce silage usage.

Even with this lighter stock, a careful eye needs to be kept on conditions.

Ground remains tender and while conditions might be ok underfoot on a certain day, a night’s rain can quickly deteriorate them. For lighter stock, one to two days of an allocation seems to be working well.