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The calving season is a challenging period on all Irish suckler farms, no more so than in the spring just gone by. Inefficiencies during this period can cost several euros per cow and, across a 50-cow herd, these losses can ultimately run into hundreds of euro. Take, for example, calving interval. For every day that one cow’s calving interval exceeds 365 days, this costs the farmer €2.20. This may seem minor, but, if we take this figure across a 50-cow herd, every day past 365 days costs the farmer €110/day.
On our BETTER farms, there are 11 spring-calving farms. The numbers calved on these farms vary from 26 to 110 cows, with the average being 55. The table below outlines the performance of the spring-calving BETTER farm herds in comparison with the national average figures based on five key performance indicators.
Right direction
As mentioned, a good calving interval brings with it a massive cost efficiency. We can see that our BETTER farm spring herds’ calving interval is 29 days below the national average. On the average 55-cow herd, this is a €3,509 saving per farm. Turning to mortalities at birth, the BETTER farms have fewer mortalities at birth than the national average. Furthermore, the spring-calving BETTER farms have 0.08 more calves/cow/year. Again, across the average 55-cow herd, this equates to four extra calves per farm. These figures represent a clear move in the right direction for the BETTER farms.
On the flip side, calf mortality under 28 days of age is higher than the national average at 5.86%. Undoubtedly, the difficult conditions during the spring have contributed largely to these losses, with many farms struggling to battle overcrowding in sheds, scour and pneumonia outbreaks and fodder shortages.
All of the BETTER farmers will certainly have learned lessons from the calving season just gone by. For some there are still areas for improvement. However, for most it can be considered a job well done under tricky conditions and it is interesting to hear how some of these farmers performed.
James Flaherty, Kerry: 348 days calving interval
“Last year we really worked hard to tighten the calving spread as we wanted a more even group of calves for finishing. This year, our breeding season started on 20 May and that will run for an eight-week period. This means calving for next year will be pushed back to the middle of February for fear of the repeated inclement weather conditions that we had this year. After this period of AI the bull is then let out to mop up the cows. Scanning will usually take place in the middle of August. Any cows that are empty will be given a couple of weeks to rear their calves and they will then be finished for culling once weaned. For us, a tight breeding period was key to lowering calving interval.”
John Dunne, Offaly: 0% mortality at birth
“Without doubt, I think the most important factor in reducing the number of deaths at calving is diet. After scanning, any empty cows are taken out and culled, which allows me to focus on my in-calf cows. Once housed, these cows are given access to my poorest quality silage. I take this mainly from the top and along the walls of the pit. No matter how good the quality of your silage is, this will always be a slight bit poorer. I don’t restrict the cows, however, I would make them clean up everything before they get more. I teach them this from day one – if you don’t do this at the start they will always leave waste. The only other supplement the cows get is pre-calver minerals. I put so much focus on diet because over-feeding leads to a difficult calving and under-feeding will leave me with weak calves. I want a cow that’s fit and a calf that’s hardy.”
John Grieves, Donegal: 0% mortality under 28 days old
“There is no denying this spring was extremely difficult. However, for us, the very late turnout wasn’t as much of a shock to our system in comparison to some of the more southern farms perhaps. Given our average turnout here is usually well into April, we are well set up to house cows and young calves. We have a 13ft slat with a 16ft creep area at the back for the calves. As well as that, we took the decision over the last couple of years to push calving back to February and March – in the past, calves born in January were getting strong and were using up too much bedding and sheds were getting dirty. From a hygiene point of view, we placed a lot more focus this year on cleaning out calving sheds and pens on a regular basis. I think this definitely helped to reduce calf mortality.”
Padraig O’Connor, Roscommon: 1.06 calves/cow/year and 0% calving difficulty
“I was fortunate enough to have three sets of twins this year that are alive and well. They are all at grass now with their own mothers which are mature cows with plenty of milk. I like to get all cows and calves out to grass as soon as I can after calving, however, due to weather conditions this year I was unable to do so, but I did let the calves creep out of the shed to grass; it really benefited calves’ health. Calving went extremely well for me. I only had to assist a couple of cows throughout the whole spring – most of the cows calved themselves. I have a calving pen with a calving camera that I can monitor between seven or eight cows at a time over the calving period. I checked it a couple of times every night when calving was at its peak. The calving camera saves a lot of hardship as I’m living three miles away from the farm.”
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