Last week was a quiet one. I enjoyed early morning walks with the dogs and the backdrop of traffic down in the valley. Normally traffic annoys me, but those days it enhanced the feeling of escaping duty. Ordinarily I’d be on my way to work, but instead I was out in the fields enjoying the countryside.

The longer break is a huge bonus of the teaching profession. It allowed me to be immersed in family and to get up to speed with the farming activity. When I’m working outside the home I’m time poor. So when Tim said: “I’m going to change the fences in Kerrypike, do you want to come?” I was able to drop all tools and put on the wellies.

As is often the case when I’m along for the ride, you get more than you bargained for. A mineral drop was also necessary. That meant we had to go to the yard and load up first. The in-calf heifers and first-lactation cows are strip-grazing hybrid rape. Minerals are important as they approach calving.

New gates

We met Colm in the yard, who added on a few more jobs for Tim. When the lads were small Tim used to tell them to do several jobs together. If there was a trip to check animals, you made sure you didn’t have to return a second time. Now his training was backfiring. Tim feigned frustration, but I knew he was smiling inwardly. Colm was making new gates for the back of the milking parlour. The job was almost finished. Everyone likes their work to be admired and as we were doing that, I remembered admiring the steps at the top of the parlour that his late grandfather, Denis, had fashioned about 15 years earlier. I saw that same look of satisfaction on Colm’s face.

Cartoon by Clyde Delaney.

Softening udders

As Tim and I travelled on, we remarked on the exceptionally mild weather. It was 9°C. Consequently, the heifers and cows are doing really well. The first signs of softening udders in the heifers are evident as nature prepares for the nurturing of a baby calf. The animals themselves are oblivious to their looming status change. There’s an exciting tension in the air. Calving, the biggest event in the dairy farming calendar, is but weeks away.

Tim opens up the Herdwatch App on his phone and hands it to me, so we can check parentage and anticipate more what calving will bring. Every bunch of heifers is expected to bring new gain to the herd. Over the years that has been the experience. The EBI of the herd now ranks among the top 10% of herds in the country. This also gives us a very tight six-week calving pattern. This is what Tim calls incremental gain, which is the stuff that results from careful planning over time. Using science and verified data will deliver results. Each gain builds on the last resulting in a new and better baseline. Colm’s gates are also incremental gain. They will last for a long time.

Plenty of grass for spring

A grass walk on 2 January heralded a cover that one would be happy with on 1 February; when the cows will go out to grass after calving. Tim reminded me that during the growing season the heaviest crop of grass divided by two gives you a very rough farm cover.

His eyebrows shifted upwards, he steadied the scales in Diarmuid’s hand and announced 2,000kg DM/ha at the bottom of the Well Field.

“Now,” he cautioned, “it is not as accurate at this time of year to divide by two. It is only indicative. When we put in the figures it will be prescriptive.”

The actual result was 893kg DM/ha. This is another incremental gain, as we learn more about soil management, nutrient management, measurement and budgeting of grass on our own farm as opposed to general farm application. It is satisfying to quantify the incremental gains that are made on the farm. It all adds up.