Plans are great, when they work. The annual TB test rolled in last week and fortunately, the herd was clear. As I’m herding on my own at the home yard, I try to stack the odds in my favour.

All got a run into the yard for a bit of ration in the days between testing and reading so I was confident of getting them in handy enough Thursday morning – with the exception of two groups of cows at the home yard housed the night before reading.

Troublesome characters

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There are a few more awkward characters in the bull calf group and in hindsight, I should have housed them.

They were stubbornness personified rather than running all over the place and plans to get the heifers in at the other yard were ditched as a half hour was lost.

To add to the fun, two cull cows were in heat in the shed. I should have copped that by the way the bull sauntered into the yard with no issue. He was like a hippo with its head out of the water as he had it risen above the herd trying to locate where the cows were.

Returning from putting the first group out the field, I heard the clang. He found them. The sound of the gate hitting the wall reverberated over the din. The last of his little assistants scurried past me before I could shut the gate. There wasn’t much point dealing with the bull so the focus moved onto getting the rest of his group out of the shed in order to free up more space to deal with him. There was no malice in him and it was just a case of trying to be patient with him before they were finally separated.

At busy times, it’s the small things that can throw you out of kilter.

I try to be organised where I can and with all the calves in for testing, it was the perfect time to give them their initial IBR shot. As I had time and it was dry, I set about tidying up their and the cows’ tails ahead of housing over the next few weeks.

The intention was to have as much of the winter prep done when I had time on my hands and the yard was dirty. With most of the big yard work out of the way, it could be washed and it would be another job off the list. The half-way point was in sight when the clippers started making a whirring noise but the shears weren’t moving. A quick inspection revealed it was an issue that I was unable to sort so it’s gone for repairs and that job will have to wait for another day.

As they won’t be in the yard for a while, the cows that are still in Ballinascarthy were scanned. The majority were bulled in the first cycle with the bull long before rumen fluke got a hold of him. As much as that parasite knocked the energy out of him towards the end of August, he still managed to perform his primary role with one cow due towards the end of May.

The aim of calving wrapping up by the end of April is gone for another year. If there’s a few more late-calvers when we get to scan the cows at home then maybe they’ll be the group housed last or some might even keep the old bull company for the winter. But sure that’s only a plan.