It might be the new year, but it is very much the same routine on the farm.

So far, breeding seems to be going well this winter and we have had two scanning sessions.

At the first session, there were 19 pregnancies out of 20, with two of these carrying twins. Of course, 20 pregnancies with no twins would have been a better outcome, but I certainly can’t complain.

The next session was just as good, with 12 pregnancies out of 13, and with no twins identified.

Over the last few years, I have started to give cows carrying twins a bit more care which seems to be paying off.

These cows get an extra kilo of meal in the parlour and don’t get moved into the low group until they have a condition score of at least three.

They also get an extra two weeks dry, and six weeks pre-calving they move into the transition group.

A bit of extra money spent in these stages more than pays for itself post-calving in terms of reduced veterinary costs, extra production and better fertility, not to mention healthier calves and better colostrum. This year, all except one cow with twins calved easily, cleaned and hit the ground running.

Classifier

On top of the usual routine, we recently had a clear TB test which is good news.

The other extra-curricular activity was a visit from the classifier.

Of 24 heifers scored, nine were VG two-year-olds with the best being a Massey-bred animal scoring 87 points. Out of 22 cows, four scored excellent, with the rest VG, except one.

What pleases me about this is that I don’t in any way breed for fancy type. Perhaps that indicates that the breed society has a clear idea about the cow that is now needed on modern farms.

For me, it’s about avoiding the extremes, with good, sensible, medium-sized cows that can consistently deliver in a commercial environment. This, when you think about it, is probably related to the good fertility results achieved during our scanning sessions.

Production

Cows this year are milking well at an average of 32.5 litres per day. This would be two litres per day ahead of last year when for some reason I just couldn’t get them to milk the way I thought they should.

Solids on the other hand are lower than normal this year at 3.9% fat and 3.27% protein (2.4kg/solids/cow).

Feed rate is acceptable at 0.37kg/L.

Bad milk price aside, last year was generally a difficult one for us.

Production per cow was down and mortality at one stage was running at 6% due to a lot of bad luck (hopefully more so than bad management). This year, thankfully everything is clicking into place and running like clockwork.

With last year behind us, like every other NI dairy farmer I am hopeful that milk price will stay at a more sustainable level and we will be able to move forward toward better times.