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Dairy farmers are reporting unusually early calvings on farms, with up to 20% of some herds calving down before their due date.
“We have 160 cows and the first was due to calve on 26 January, but we had just over 20% of the herd calved by then,” Eamon Sheehan from Co Kilkenny told the Irish Farmers Journal.
“In my view it’s all down to genetics. Your heifers over the last number of years have been bred from short gestation bulls and you’re using short gestation bulls on them again.”
Derek O’Donoghue, principal of the Salesian Agricultural College in Pallaskenry, Co Limerick, also confirmed that around 20% of the college’s 270-cow herd had calved before their due date on 7 February.
“We delayed AI for five days last year and we’ll probably do the same again this year,” O’Donoghue said.
“We used 11 AI bulls last year, but there’s no one particular bull that’s throwing early calves.
“We really didn’t want anything before the 1 February. You could get badly caught if you weren’t prepared, but luckily the weather has improved and we’ve been able to let cows out.
“Long-term it’s a benefit because the cow gets a longer break in between calving and going back in calf.”
A spokesperson for ICBF said that while it hadn’t noticed any nationwide phenomenon within dairy herds, gestation lengths of bulls have been decreasing over the last decade.
“Gestation lengths have been dropping by half a day for the last 10 years, and that trend has continued this year.”
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