HubWatch - 12 November 2026

Visitors

• Last Thursday, we enjoyed a visit from the Blackwater Forge Farm Group from Southern Ireland. It was an incredibly engaged group, and Southland put on some stunning weather for them.

Feeding

• We reduced in-shed feed to the Standard herd as residuals were beginning to increase.

• A question was raised following last week's HubWatch, so we'd like to clarify that we don't plate paddocks immediately after grazing. We plate once a week as part of our farm walk. Therefore, the residual figure includes paddocks that may be several days post-grazing.

• A total of 112 bales were conserved from nine paddocks. So far, we've mown 17% of the Future herd's farm area and 7% of the Standard herd's farm area. No post-grazing topping has occurred. Instead, we prefer to mark any untidy residuals on the feed wedge for conservation during the next round. There are currently two paddocks we've identified as needing to be conserved next round.

• We've secured some good-quality pasture from a neighbour to conserve as silage. Weather permitting, this will be cut this weekend. The plan is for this to at least half-fill the first bunker, which will then be topped up with the first cut from our support block.

Mating

• We feel we've had a good start to mating, with 330 cows submitted within the first eight days. This represents 44% of the Standard herd and 41% of the Future herd. This figure includes 30 CIDR cows.

• Of the 192 R2s, 43 were spot-mated within the first seven days, while 140 received a PG injection and were subsequently artificially inseminated. Jersey bulls have now been put in with them.

Calves

• Calves still being fed milk were weighed on 11 November, and 85 calves will be weaned over the next week, leaving 50 still on milk.

• The first 80 weaned calves will leave for the grazier on Friday 13 November.

Cropping and regrassing

• We've achieved excellent dieback in the paddocks sprayed out on 5 November, and D Thompson Contracting began ploughing paddocks that were previously in permanent pasture on 11 November.