We were having what Tim calls a “bull hiatus.” It had been four days since a cow calved and six days since a heifer calved. Tim equates this phenomenon to when the AI breeding stopped and the natural service of the bulls began.

The high genetic merit AI bulls that were used have a shorter gestation period than the home-bred bulls and so this might create this short pause in calving. Colm doesn’t agree. He thinks it’s purely just the way the numbers fall as we come to the end of calving. We had 86% of the cows calved by St Patrick’s Day.

It was bitterly cold in Woodside and I was happy that I did not have to go to a parade. After Tuam and the crash of the Coast Guard helicopter, I think Irish people are subdued. Celebration is not high on the agenda and our sympathies are with the families of Captain Dara Fitzpatrick, Mark Duffy, Paul Ormsby and Ciarán Smith and their communities. I hope that by the time you read this, they will have been recovered and returned to their families. One never knows when lives will be turned upside down as a result of a tragedy.

Mild spring

Spring has been much milder up to now than last year. Calving has continued to be fast and furious. Last year we had a serious problem with rota virus.

Colm kept telling me that we would be naive to think we could solve it in one year. And so, as sure as night follows day, about four weeks into calving we had a few cases of scour. It made me terrified of going to the shed for a few days. It’s only then you realise just how hard it was last year. I pity anybody who’s in the throes of it this year. After a few days, we realised it was a small problem and that the few calves that got sick recovered fully within 48 hours. Vaccination of the cows and early intervention paid off.

A bit of scour is also bound to happen in a full shed. There is a very definite tipping point. Recognising this and bracing ourselves for what might transpire, the focus was very quickly on reducing the stocking density by moving on the bull calves as soon as possible to take the pressure off.

Although I know that they must go and I expect it, I still hate the trailer pulling in to load up those lovely young calves. I find it quite soul destroying to send fine, healthy calves with shiny coats to the mart and have them not cover the cost of the haulage and the milk that they have consumed.

That is one of the consequences of cross breeding and we factor it into the budget as a cost to the system.

Some of the cows are in-calf to Angus and the gap between the price the dairy and beef bull calves attain is huge. I find it incredible that it is justified when the total profitability of both is assessed at end-of-life stage.

Market dilemma

We have followed the Moorepark template for dairy farming for years now. We listen to the results of years of research and put the findings into practice. We’ve gone the cross-breeding route and we are reaping the rewards of better fertility, resulting in a tighter calving pattern.

We have a robust cow, well suited to our grass-based system. Milk solids are up and most of the cows bar a handful calved themselves. We had one C-section. It was a surprise not having had one for years. Colm was about 15 the last time we had one. It was nearly midnight when we had to call the vet to a cow who was unable to have her calf due to complications.

Typically, we were all on board just like any other farming family when there’s an animal in trouble. I was waiting at the gate to guide the vet. The three men were in the yard with the cow. It isn’t often they fail to bring a calf. The calf was dead but the cow has recovered well. These are the tough days in farming. Our calf mortality rate should come in well below the national average. We’ve lost no calf that was born alive and that’s the way we want to keep it.

Question

There is no place in farming for one farming enterprise dissing another. Beef men accusing dairy men of ruining the beef industry by producing the wrong type of calf doesn’t solve a problem. There are things that are not said in the farming community that go to the heart of our businesses. Both enterprises need to prosper.

So, my question is this. Is it a failure of marketing that there is no worthwhile outlet for the crossbred bull calf? Has anyone taken this seriously and tried to really market these calves?

It would be reasonable to expect the bull calf to cover at least the cost of sale, which includes the carriage to market and the milk fed. Cross breeding works. It delivers more profit to the dairy farmer. It follows that more farmers will adopt it over the years and this will be a problem that must be addressed.

Sexed semen is one answer but is still not perfected enough to make it a viable option. Who is going to face up to the challenge proactively?

Teagasc must have a big part to play. Meat factories should have an involvement and most definitely the marts. These calves are part of the output from dairy farms. They are not going away.