August 2015

Nitrogen applied in early August ensures pasture covers are sufficient for lambing onto in late August. Set stocking of twin bearing ewes takes place on 22nd August but already a handful had lambed while on the Kale.
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Again it is a very condensed lambing, the weather is kind and lamb survival has been good.
As we start the task of rebuilding our feed reserves 10 hectares of triticale is drilled for cereal silage. Rainfall for the month is only 22mm. We have now had a total of 289mm to the end of August. Has the drought broken? No, because we are only at 70% of average rainfall and there is no subsoil moisture in the ground. However, we are getting a spring. End of August see the end of feeding out and surprisingly, as growth has been good, we have a paddock of regrowth rape we can offer to the stags. One mobs of the hinds is able to go onto the Kale that was not required by the ewes. It makes a welcome change to have adlib feeding after months of a diet of barley straw and palm kernel.