The first seven calves on the ground were all Friesian heifers, one of which is a KYD a top bull from Dovea who happens to have been bred by my father-in-law.

I have been compact calving now with a few years but this year is set to break all records due to the high proportion of heifers that are due to calve down and a good success rate from the synchronisation programme we used.

There are a total of 140 cows and heifers due to calve from 1 Febuary, with 130 of those due before St Patrick ’s Day. One thing that I am really noticing this year is the amount of early calvings, with all calvings so far seven to 10 days ahead of predicted calving dates.

Overcrowding

At the moment I feel a bit of empathy for Leo Varadkar and the HSE with their overcrowding issues in our hospitals. I have the very same issue with my maternity unit. Strictly speaking I can fit 12 to 15 cows or heifers in there. I think if it were twice the size it would still be too small. I have no option but to keep a very close eye on the cubicles and only run the auto scrapers when I am around the farm yard.

Sire selection

When I first joined the monitor farm programme three years ago, a major emphasis was placed on sire selection - using the best bulls from the top 20 of the active sire list, then picking the traits that are most required on my farm.

It is now very exciting to see these animals calving down and entering the milking parlour, and the progress on EBI has been phenomenal. I have also started tagging the calves with their sire code, there is a little work in it but it is very fascinating to follow the progress of the sires I have chosen along the way. I did not get round to ordering AI straws for my 2015 breeding season, but it's top of my priority list for this week!