Thankfully all has been calmer on the breeding front this year after two years of disruption. I’d take an injured bull over a sub-fertile one every time – at least then you know there is a problem instantly.

Last year was incredibly frustrating, a breeding season of uncertainty as some cows showed up like clockwork every three weeks while others didn’t. Noting the dates of cows bulling in the diary was the saving grace.

In the end six cows held to the sub-fertile bull, with three calving at the start, two in mid-March and one in the middle of April. Over 20 didn’t hold despite them cycling normally; thankfully his replacement sorted the issues. The end result is a calving interval of 406 days.

After a nine-year average of 372 days it’s a bit of a slip but at least we know what the issue is. Not knowing is worse. Reviewing the consequences of the events from last summer showed that besides the calving interval slip there were other knock-on effects.

September calf weights will be way behind normal and it is unusual to see so many smaller calves around in July.

Size difference

The size difference between the February-born calves and the May ones is eye-opening. On top of calf size variance, workload increased as the calving stretched out by almost a month and grazing management had to be adapted too.

Normally I’d be on auto pilot with regard to getting stock out and planning for silage, to the point where you wouldn’t have to think too much about it.

This spring saw the standard blueprint being thrown out. There were positives in that almost 90% of the silage was in before the end of June. The next 10 days or so should see it all wrapped up for 2017.

It has also resulted in the acreage for topping going into double figures for the first time in years. In a normal year there’s usually a week just before silage is cut that you feel like you won’t have enough grass. It’s a few days of minor panic that are bizarrely reassuring.

This year that moved to early July as with almost a third of the cows calving late, grass demand was very different. They are now hitting aftergrass so calves are positively thriving. It has thrown our normal calving date up for discussion.

Most of the May calves are bulls and are from the mature cows. If they perform well and we get them away in June 2018, then calving may move to March and April in future.

Extra expense

Early spring calving requires extra expense and work. It may suit the farm better and would be a bit of a back to the future move as in our pre-shed days that is when the calving season was.

Reading that there were bull fertility issues on the Irish Farmers Journal farm at Tullamore was reassuring.

While some take delight when things go wrong on research and demonstration farms – it shows that things don’t always go to plan in farming. Some would have you believe that everything is perfect all the time while reality would say otherwise.

As a lecturer in college said: “There is no such thing as the perfect farm.” He was right – there are far too many variables you have no control over.

What you can control is how you deal with it. While what happened last year was disappointing, once you have your health there is no point worrying about something you can do little about.