All the dairy heifers were AI’d last week after undergoing a week-long synchronisation programme.

At this stage, I think both the heifers and the family help could nearly carry out the programme themselves, considering the number of mornings we’ve all spent together over the past week.

There was a serious routine to it all - get up a little earlier than normal, bring in the heifers, inject them with this, inject them with that, put in CIDRs, take out CIDRs and try to remember who got what and when.

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By the end of it, everyone knew the synchronisation timetable better than their own breakfast routine.

To be fair to the family help, they were beginning to get a little bit fed up with the whole affair by the last few days.

There are only so many damp mornings a person can spend standing at a crush before enthusiasm starts to wear thin. The heifers themselves weren’t exactly full of co-operation either.

In fairness, after being rounded up every morning for three or four days in a row, they were starting to look at us coming into the field with the same suspicion schoolchildren would have seeing the principal arrive into class unexpectedly.

Strong heats

Thankfully, though, all the heifers showed strong heats and were easy enough inseminated, which was encouraging to see, especially considering all sexed semen was used. Fingers crossed now for a good hit rate.

There’s always a certain relief once the final straw is put in and the flask lid closed. For now, at least, everybody can settle down again and return to a more normal routine.

The only casualty of the whole operation appears to be the corner of the field beside the yard where the heifers were grazing.

After a week of heavy rain, combined with all the bulling activity, it’s fairly well blackened at this stage. You’d nearly lose a welly crossing it.

Soft conditions

Ground conditions generally are soft to say the least and every trip in and out of the field over the week certainly didn’t improve matters.

The warmer weather came at a good time too, as the reseed had just started to chip through the ground over the past couple of days. A bit of heat now should drive it on nicely.