The last of the stock from the smallest block were housed on 29 December. Taking away the weaned cows from that particular land block meant the autumn rotation plan had slowed down, so it fell onto these animals to complete it.

The group consisted of a cow, two calves and two heifers that calved at 15 and 17 months, respectively. I had christened the group “the argument and the accidents”. I’ll start with the argument.

Scanning last September revealed two cows not in-calf. Disappointing, but you cash in on these circumstances.

I put both cows into the cull group for finishing. This is when the argument started. One of the cows was a pedigree and my parents overruled me. It was the one time I questioned whether I made the right decision to farm on the family farm.

I was trying to make a business decision, yet was held back by what I felt was an emotion-driven one. The cow’s saving grace was she was a different bloodline to our other pedigrees.

She calved in July and will be bred in early April to fall in line with the rest of the herd. The cow stays, but she is the last to get that preferential treatment. Margins are too tight to carry passengers.

I’ll admit compromise wasn’t easy, but a bit of give and take went a long way. My father’s view was that the cow presented an opportunity to breed our own replacement bulls instead of buying in.

With some prominent pedigree breeders absent from the Gene Ireland maternal bull breeders’ scheme, this may turn out to be a good idea.

The accidents were the two heifers that calved young. They had been in our worst-performing group last year.

Calves split

We split the bull and heifer calves in July. As there were fewer cows with heifer calves and the fact the calves were so small we let the stock bull remain with this group until mid-September. There was no way they’d come into heat at their size. Nature had a different idea to what we thought wasn’t possible.

They weighed 240kg and 253kg on 16 September, but both were in-calf. The bull wasn’t hanging around for them to reach the recommended 400+kg bulling weight.

We’ve little choice but to let them run for the year. They don’t qualify for the once-calved heifer scheme and are much too small to sell as cows.

The one who lost her calf weighed 460kg last week and the one rearing her calf was 385kg. They have high suckler beef values though and they’ve proven that fertility isn’t an issue with them.

According to ICBF calving report stats, 17% of beef heifers calve between 22 and 26 months. I’d love to know what percentage of heifers calve under 22 months. It seems to be an annual issue in the Irish Farmers Journal with weanling buyers ending up with in-calf heifers.

The low national average herd size is probably part of the reason. It doesn’t justify farmers keeping replacements in some cases.

Hopefully, 2015 will see the appearance of the suckler beef values in marts. Yes, reliable figures are low at present, but they will improve with time, similar to EBI in dairy.

They may not suit the show breeder, but should be of benefit to commercial farmers. Breeding indices are an extremely useful tool in buying breeding stock. In my opinion, a close second to your own eyes.

I find it funny that many who dismiss them regularly watch the weather forecast. Same purpose.