Earlier this year, I wrote about a bull calf, born by Caesarean section, that weighed 60kg and I wondered how much money he would leave when compared with the first bull calf born at 30kg. Last week, there was 3kg between them. Their feeding has been the same, so it will be interesting to see the difference in performance following fluke and worm doses.

One group of bulls had signs of coccidiosis so I took dung samples and, very surprisingly, it turned out they had a high rumen fluke infestation. They had been on the home farm all year, which is perceived as very dry. However, they were on wetter ground after the calves were split, so must have picked it up there.

Rumen fluke completely stunts thrive but the timing could have been worse. I weighed the bulls last week and for those affected it was like I had pressed pause on them for three weeks, their gains were so minuscule.

Taking the dung samples was money well spent in hindsight. I would never have considered rumen fluke making an appearance on this land and would just have been shooting in the dark wondering what was causing the problem.

That weighing will be their last until they go up the ramp next spring. At 225 days, all calves averaged 299kg before they ever saw any ration.

Silage analysis revealed the young stock are getting silage that has a DMD of 72, protein of 13.3% and metabolisable energy of 10.9%.

The bulls are on a high protein diet until the start of the year, when they will then switch to a finishing diet.

Heifers are on the same feed but are getting 0.5kg each. I didn’t bother weighing the heifers as all that matters for them is that they go in calf from late April onwards.

While I was entering the weights on the ICBF website, I took a look at when the cows were due. Calving starts in about 60 days with the heifers due first. The wheel keeps turning.

I have my tags ordered and I stuck with my current suppliers. The first tissue tags they provided were pretty shoddy but I haven’t seen any increase in tag losses in the last two years.

One weanling has lost one this year and I saw that happen when I was moving them. This is an improvement from randomly finding lost tags in the field.

I’m also continuing with paying a levy to the ICBF.

I can’t help but think that the lasting legacy of last year’s IFA implosion will be the tarnishing of levies in farmers’ eyes. That’s a dangerous position.

If we opt out of paying levies towards Bord Bia, Teagasc and the ICBF, then we can’t complain when the bigger meat factories or corporations such as McDonald’s step in to co-fund research projects. If we don’t continue to fund these activities, then we gradually lose control of our own industry, something we don’t have much of as it is.

As farmers, we need to have a say and influence, particularly in the marketing and research of the products we produce.

New Zealand’s equivalent of Teagasc, Beef+Lamb NZ, is funded and controlled by farmers through levies. Every six years its existence is voted on by farmers who show their approval, or otherwise, of the organisation.

It is aimed entirely at benefiting the farmers’ lot and it has regional and national boards consisting of the top commercial farmers.

It demonstrates the positive role that levies can play to benefit those who pay them.