Breeding: Depending on your breeding start date and whether pre-breeding heats were conducted, the list of cows not yet seen bulling will be known shortly. Some of these will be calved less than 35 days so you wouldn’t expect them to be bulling anyway, but the other cows should be looked at. Get them scanned by a vet to see what the problem is and he or she can give hormone treatments or wash-outs there and then, if necessary. Herds with a very high fertility status, such as crossbred herds or high-EBI herds will probably get away with just giving these cows time to right themselves, but most herds will need some form of intervention or these cows will go in-calf too late or not at all. All late-calving cows and cows not bulling should be put on once-a-day milking in conjunction with other treatments. This will help their energy balance and they should resume cycling activity sooner.

Wait until at least the first three weeks of the breeding season are over before introducing teaser bulls. A lot of herds will only use one bull to mop up cows or heifers after AI. This is risky as if the bull is not doing his job properly, the cows won’t be in-calf. Getting the bull tested now before he starts work is a good idea, but positive results now are not to say that he won’t lose fertility or libido during the season. Using more than one bull really reduces the risks.

Dosing: It’s a bit too early to be dosing calves for worms. Let them get exposure to worms before dosing them. When to dose will depend on when they have been exposed to worms and the only way to know this is to take dung samples. Tommy Heffernan says collecting fresh dung samples with a teaspoon and pooling them together in a jar before sending them off for testing is a good idea. The faecal test will cost about €10 and if carried out on a Monday you should have results back by the weekend. Doing this every few weeks will give a good indication of when to dose.

Physical signs of stomach worms are poor thrive, very loose dungs and dirty tails and hind legs. Lungworm can also be a problem. A deep, hoosey cough indicates lungworm. Animals with lungworm will have the hoosey cough after running.

Electricity: According to John Upton of Moorepark, electricity costs on farms vary from €2.60 to €8.70 per 1,000 litres of milk sold. This is a huge difference between farms. Cooling milk and heating water are the biggest costs, accounting for nearly half of the total electricity consumption. Pre-cooling the milk with a plate cooler before it gets to the tank really reduces the amount of work the bulk tank has to do. This has a payback period of just three years.

The flow of water through the plate cooler should be in a 2:1 ratio with milk and the water should be cold, ideally coming directly from a well.

Some farmers will fit a solenoid to the plate cooler so the water is only on when the electric milk pump is running. A quick way to save money is to shop around for electricity. Find the cheapest providers on www.bonkers.ie