The main group of cows finished calving this morning (Easter Sunday). This should give us a week or so free from calving.
We were a bit more lenient at the tail end of breeding last year given the unusual issues encountered during breeding season.
Basically each of the 10 due has a story but fingers crossed they will calve alright. Three are cows that reared twins without the aid of meal but they are still due in early April and another cow had twins but kicked one off after a month.
There are also a few heifers who slipped. The priority with calves is to keep them all alive and thriving and with those left to calve it’s to make sure I don’t take my eye off the ball. The last few to calve tend to not get as much attention.
Due to weather and grass growth conditions, there are just 21 cows and their calves out full time on the home block and these are completing the spring-grazing rotation planner, with the last 10 acres to be completed on the home block.
Back fences have been set up to allow cows and calves access to ditches and hedges for shelter from the wind and rain, and like every other day since grazing began, the weather forecast is consulted on a regular basis.
The older calves who were out first were sent to the fields across the road this week. These fields are kept till the end of the rotation as if something goes wrong with a calf it is difficult to get the animals back across the road on my own.
High drama
Hopefully by the first week of April conditions will have improved on the rented ground to enable us to get the first and second calvers that are out sent there. This would then allow cows still indoors to kick off the second rotation here.
Word came through during the week that our hard work on stage since last September has been rewarded with a place in the RTÉ drama finals in Athlone.
It was another case of jumping in at the deep end this spring going on the drama festival circuit and as I’m involved in a few other volunteer organisations I bit off a little more than I could chew, especially when I ended up sick as well.
But you live you learn and thankfully cows obliged with only three calving while I was away. It required a lot of organisation at farm level but thankfully the fact we try to keep things as simple as possible meant it proved worthwhile.
Read more
Farmer Writes: The return from AI calves
The main group of cows finished calving this morning (Easter Sunday). This should give us a week or so free from calving.
We were a bit more lenient at the tail end of breeding last year given the unusual issues encountered during breeding season.
Basically each of the 10 due has a story but fingers crossed they will calve alright. Three are cows that reared twins without the aid of meal but they are still due in early April and another cow had twins but kicked one off after a month.
There are also a few heifers who slipped. The priority with calves is to keep them all alive and thriving and with those left to calve it’s to make sure I don’t take my eye off the ball. The last few to calve tend to not get as much attention.
Due to weather and grass growth conditions, there are just 21 cows and their calves out full time on the home block and these are completing the spring-grazing rotation planner, with the last 10 acres to be completed on the home block.
Back fences have been set up to allow cows and calves access to ditches and hedges for shelter from the wind and rain, and like every other day since grazing began, the weather forecast is consulted on a regular basis.
The older calves who were out first were sent to the fields across the road this week. These fields are kept till the end of the rotation as if something goes wrong with a calf it is difficult to get the animals back across the road on my own.
High drama
Hopefully by the first week of April conditions will have improved on the rented ground to enable us to get the first and second calvers that are out sent there. This would then allow cows still indoors to kick off the second rotation here.
Word came through during the week that our hard work on stage since last September has been rewarded with a place in the RTÉ drama finals in Athlone.
It was another case of jumping in at the deep end this spring going on the drama festival circuit and as I’m involved in a few other volunteer organisations I bit off a little more than I could chew, especially when I ended up sick as well.
But you live you learn and thankfully cows obliged with only three calving while I was away. It required a lot of organisation at farm level but thankfully the fact we try to keep things as simple as possible meant it proved worthwhile.
Read more
Farmer Writes: The return from AI calves
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