The breeding season for my spring calving herd is coming to an end. We are planning to scan the cows next week.

Stock bulls went out with cows on 15 May and there has been little breeding activity of late. Hopefully the majority of cows will be calving during March and April, but we did have one issue with a stock bull that may have impacted on the calving spread for next year.

I have been trying to build cow numbers for a couple of years by keeping more home-bred heifers. It has been a slow process as there have been a few issues along the way.

This summer, we had a total of 80 cows and heifers running with the bull, which breaks down to 60 cows and 20 heifers. Our target is to have 70 cows calving and weaning a calf next year.

Stock bull issue

We purchased a new Simmental stock bull this year, but unfortunately he had to be replaced during the breeding season as he damaged his hamstrings on 11 July. After a few enquiries, we sourced another Simmental bull on 20 July, so there was a period of nine days when these cows were not being covered. The first Simmental bull did manage to cover the majority of the cows before he became injured, so hopefully this won’t cause too much of a slip in calving dates for next spring. We have been trying to tighten the calving pattern in recent years, after an infertile bull caused things to slip a couple of years ago, and have made good progress which we do not want to lose.

Cows were served in two groups, with the second group bred to a Limousin bull. We decided to bring in the Simmental bull to try and get more hybrid vigour, along with more milk, into the cows.

Heifers The replacement heifers were bred to AI using the same fixed-time AI programme we followed last year, which gave mixed results. However, I am more confident this year that there will be more heifers in-calf to AI. The synchronisation programme used was CIDRS and although it can be expensive, once you count in drugs and vet fees, the timings of handling cattle suit me as I work off-farm.

In the end, we inseminated 19 heifers as one animal did not respond to the programme. Heifers were inseminated to the Shorthorn bull, Hussar, on 15 May.

Going by the bull’s EBVs, he should be easy calving with a shorter than average gestation period, which is positive when calving heifers down at 24 months of age.

He also has good terminal traits and is exceptionally strong on milk which gives the option of keeping some of his heifers.

The heifers were allowed to run with a Limousin stock bull over the summer period to cover any repeats.

Toxins

Earlier this spring, we had an issue with cows aborting as they came to the point of calving. In total, we lost nine calves which was a severe blow. After investigation and results from a post-mortem, we sent silage samples to the lab for testing and this confirmed that the primary cause was mycotoxins.

As mentioned earlier, we have been trying to increase the herd in recent years towards our target of 70 cows calved and weaning a calf.

Despite putting a total of 80 cows and heifers to the bull this year, it is unlikely that we will have enough cows served to reach our target.

I have six cows already marked for culling after weaning as they are older cows and are lacking in milk.

There will also be a few cows that are empty at scanning time that will also have to be culled, so this quickly reduces the number of cows set to calve down next year.

In addition to these animals, I have four cows pulled into the yard and weaned. These cows are again animals that have had several issues this year and are now being fattened with a planned slaughter date in late September.

Cull value

With cull cows worth a lot of money, I have no issue in culling hard this year as the value of my cows generates a good return which covers the cost of bringing in a replacement heifer.

Once cows are culled, I have plans to purchase around 10 to 12 heifers that are scanned to calve down next March around the start of my preferred calving period. I have already made a few enquiries about heifers from farms that I know, which gives me confidence to purchase animals that are healthy and will perform as expected. After purchasing these additional heifers, I should hopefully have around 75 cows calving next spring which increases the prospect of weaning 70 cows and calves next year.

Our second cut silage was harvested on 24 July and yields were lower than I would have liked. Between first and second cut, we have just over 500 tonnes of silage in the pit plus 50 round bales.

I would have liked the pit to be closer to 600 tonnes of silage. Therefore, we have taken the decision to close off 15 acres of silage ground for a third cut and it should be ready for cutting in 10 days’ time, weather depending. This should boost silage reserves for the winter ahead.

Grazing

Grass growth has been good during August and we have good covers built up ahead of cows. With rain becoming more frequent, we are back to moving cows every three to four days to fresh grass.

In July when the farm was dry, cows could graze paddocks for a week to 10 days depending on grass supply.

We fed 20 bales of silage in late July when grass growth was struggling and this proved to be a good move as it took the pressure off the rotation and allowed grass to start building ahead of cows again.

We also introduced the creep feeder in July to make sure calf performance remained on track. This is the first year we put the feeder out so early and I feel that calves are performing better than last year.

Calves were wormed on Monday and received the first shot of their pneumonia vaccine. The booster shot and IBR vaccine will be given in four weeks’ time.

The big focus this year is to increase the housing weights of our calves. As male calves are finished as young bulls, we need to increase housing weights to have more bulls finishing in May-June, rather than June-July.