Autumn calving continues to progress relatively trouble-free for the majority of programme farms with autumn cows.

There have been a few reports of cows not presenting calves properly, but the farmers are able to correct this by themselves without the need for assistance from their local vet.

On farms that had cows calving in early August, the farmers are reporting that some cows are already coming back into heat again.

Grazing cows on silage aftermath or top-quality regrowth in paddocks has provided a feed source high in energy, which is the one limiting aspect of the calved cow’s diet.

Getting cows onto a rising plane of nutrition after calving has a positive effect on fertility and some cows are showing strong heats at present.

The temptation is to start the breeding season earlier than planned once a herd owner sees cows in heat.

But putting the bull in earlier than planned will have a similar effect to not taking the bull away on time.

Some cows will hold to the early service, while others will not.

The end result is that the calving pattern becomes spread out again, only this time, it is not the tail-end cows causing the problems, but some early cows.

They can, of course, be held back in the following year, but for convenience, the programme farmers are holding to the planned breeding dates in early to mid-October.