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It was quite a shock stepping off the plane in late January and meeting the cold Dublin air, a far cry from the intense heat of western Australia. I’ll admit it did take a few days for the body to adjust to the change in temperatures.
I am currently settling into my new job working for local dairy farmers Kevin and Ann Murphy, based just on the edge of Gorey town.
We are in the midst of the busy spring-calving season, with just over 90 of the 260-strong herd already calved down.
We run a crossbred herd (kiwi-cross) to suit our grass-based system, with cows out grazing up to 10 months of the year.
Both staff and cows have taken well to their new surroundings, with only some persuasion being required for the older ladies in the herd
There have been no major issues so far, apart from the odd case of milk fever but this seems to be a common theme around the country this spring. Cows are calving down in excellent, if not over-fat, condition which may be the cause of our issues.
All cows were dried off on 1 December to enable construction to begin on a new 44-point Waikato rotary parlour, collecting yard and dairy, which has just been commissioned earlier this week.
Both staff and cows have taken well to their new surroundings, with only some persuasion being required for the older ladies in the herd.
The new rotary will greatly reduce time spent milking and enable one person to milk over 200 cows/hr and also future-proof the farm for any further expansion down the line.
Freshly calved cows are currently being milked once a day to ease labour requirements and are run in a separate mob, remaining indoors on silage until withdrawal periods are met.
The spring weather has been very reasonable so far, with milking cows grazing both day and night when conditions allow. Cows are grazing 12-hour blocks in order to hit residuals and protect grazed ground. Reels and standards are a man’s best friend when trying to get cows out this time of year.
Grass is in abundance everywhere, thankfully, with fresh re-growths already popping up on recently grazed ground. Some slurry was spread, via trailing shoe, on lighter covers which will ease pressure until more ground is grazed off.
The daily routine is slowly getting back to some form of normality
No fertiliser has been spread yet, but with further mild weather on the way in the coming week it won’t be long until the spinner is hooked up.
The last few days have been extremely busy in the yard. The daily routine is slowly getting back to some form of normality. Dry cows and in-calf heifers are currently being fed second-cut silage along with a few kilos of soya hulls and pre-calving minerals.
Our first batch of heifer calves will be moved onto a computerised feeder shortly, which will free up valuable time both morning and evening.
Each heifer calf has an EID (electronic tag) which is used to identify her on the machine. It will also be used down the line for drafting when she eventually joins the milking herd.
Silage stocks are still plentiful, but will be monitored all the same as 1 April is still a while off yet and March can be an unpredictable month.
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