Last summer, I was extremely frustrated to discover that the main stock bull was sub-fertile. The last two years I only had one cow calve in May.

This year was to be the first year with calving finished by the end of April. There’s over a dozen due in May now.

It annoyed me at the time, but having come through yet another spell of poor weather in early spring maybe that was nature’s way of saying stall on a small bit. This spring, calving has been at a completely different pace to recent years. I have about the same amount calved now than I had by 6 March last year. Compact calving in sucklers when you don’t have the facilities to keep them all housed puts pressure on man, buildings and beasts. That’s when trouble hits.

A calf with scour, depending on the type, can have a nasty effect on the rest of the calves. The cost of building facilities to use for a few weeks makes little sense when pushing calving date out a little further is an alternative. Sometimes we need to think a little differently.

Fertiliser prices are too high? Use less of it and make better use of clover, slurry and dung. As a farming friend from abroad said, every farmer gets four things for free – sunlight, rainfall, carbon and nitrogen. In the case of the latter two, you need plants to access them but they are present in the atmosphere nonetheless.

Working with nature

I’m coming more and more to the conclusion that we need to work with nature a bit more on farms. I saw enough of it while on my travels.

I’m confident of getting good weights on to young bulls at 12 to 14 months and those cows will hit grass straight away and should be picked up by bulls on their first heats.

The fact all the cattle are finished now rather than sold as weanlings means I’m not as tied to early calving.

Yes, I may miss out on a few kg of growth at grass but as recent springs have shown I may miss out on some misery too and I would be happy to do that. There is no point spending money adapting the environment to suit the cows.

It was mainly heifers who calved first and it was great to be able to give them time and space on their own. They are smaller than the mature cows so don’t take up as much space in the calving shed and are very easily trained to on-off grazing. The young cows all held to their first bulling and have calved with the exception of those who were with the bull who went wrong.

For the most part all went well. However, a second calver who was extremely slow taking to her calf took me by surprise.

Red card territory

She was the same last year as a heifer, which is understandable. It took her a couple of days to start mothering the calf, but I wasn’t expecting it this time around. It’s enough reason to push her towards red card territory.

I have followed the progress of the Newford demonstration farm and it has been interesting to see. It has its critics, especially because of Dawn Meats’ involvement, but I see it as a good thing. They now get to experience the financial reality that occurs on suckler farms, as well as the variables of weather and animal health.