Calving is finished for another year. Well, that statement is not exactly true!

All cows and heifers that were supposed to be in calf have finished calving since the middle of January, but I have a maiden heifer that was only due to be bulled around now that has turned out heavy in calf.

Not exactly sure how it happened, but it's not the first time and I’m sure it won’t be the last.

Hopefully everything will work out OK. She’s a reasonable size of a heifer (Angus-cross-British Friesian), she’s putting down a nice bag of milk and, if I had to guess, I’d say she is probably in calf to my Salers bull, so hopefully won’t be too hard to calf.

Statements like that are always dangerous though, as one never knows what’s around the corner, but hopefully I’ll mange to keep them all alive.

Thankfully, calving went well. Leaving the renegade heifer aside, I was finished in 13 weeks, I lost one calf and had one set of twins, so at the minute I have a calf for every cow.

Statements like that are always dangerous though, as one never knows what’s around the corner, but hopefully I’ll manage to keep them all alive.

There is a bit of coughing in the shed and I’ve had to inject a few calves with slight temperatures, which is disappointing, as I vaccinated all the calves this year with Rispoval to try to alleviate a problem that unfortunately I’m well used to.

Vaccinate

I will probably continue to vaccinate next year, as I gained an extra six weeks on a normal year before the issue arose, but, unfortunately, it didn’t cure it completely as I had hoped.

It is difficult to say what causes the problem, as there is plenty of air in the shed and no low draughts. All I can do is continue on my quest to try to solve it and, hopefully, someday I’ll get it sorted.

I’ve made a good few changes in the shed over the last number of years, all of which have probably helped, but haven’t eradicated the fundamental cause, whatever it is.

AI

I’ve been using AI to inseminate cows since the beginning of January, mostly all terminal sires, the Charolais Bull White Cliff James predominantly.

To date, approximately half the herd have been inseminated with only a few repeats.

Whether they’re in calf or not remains to be seen, but here’s hoping! I will scan some of them in a month or so to see how I’m getting on.

I also have a Salers bull running with a batch of maiden heifers and a few maternal cows. He has a very high replacement index and has proved himself to be easy calving.

I will continue to AI my terminal cows until the end of February when hopefully I will introduce my Charolais stock bull.

I say hopefully because he has been very well looked after since he came away from the cows last August in preparation for the next breeding season.

However, he has recently decided to go slightly lame on a front foot, three weeks before I need him. Murphy’s law or what!

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