It's been a rocky start to the 2018 calving season on Tullamore Farm. Calving started on 29 January with heifers predominantly due in the first two weeks.

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So far, we have 11 calved with nine live calves on the ground. We purchased four heifers in January to bring the total number to calve on Tullamore Farm in 2018 to 100. Unfortunately, we lost two of these heifer calves. Both presented normally and were allowed to progress to calve but, when handled, the calves were dead. Both have been sent to Athlone regional vet lab for a post mortem.

Heifers

As the two heifers were very quiet and have milk, we decided to foster two calves on them. Of the 11 calvings so far, there have been four assists which include a section on a heifer that did not open up to calve. So far, cows and heifers are calving down with a good supply of colostrum, cows have cleaned and calves seem very healthy.

Calf weight is being monitored and seven bull calves are averaging 39kg, while four heifer calves are averaging 45kg. Bull calves are mainly Angus and heifer calves have been Simmental-bred so far.

Supervision

In terms of supervision there are two people currently working on the farm. Anthony Mulligan, a student from UCD, and Colm Grogan are staggering time on the farm, ie one comes in early and goes home early, while the other comes in late and goes home late.

This is maximising the length of supervision during the day. The camera is used as supervision at night. Housing is tight and cows and calves are being turned out to grass once the calf has had a few days in the calving pen to bond with its mother.

So far, cows and heifers are calving down with a good supply of colostrum

Bulls have just started ad-lib feeding this week and are consuming 9kg of ration and have moved on to straw. Heifers have been moved off straw-bedding back on to slats to make way for cows coming close to calving. All cows have now been clipped and received their scour vaccine. Dairy X heifers are close to finishing the kale and will move to grass by the end of the month.

To prolong the length of time on kale, we have been feeding 2kg of meal per head per day fro the past two weeks. Average farm cover is quite low at 422kg/DM/ha.

Grass

There are some nice covers of grass on paddocks closed up since last October but the reseeded area that was grazed with sheep until Christmas has very little grass. We are waiting on ground conditions to improve to spread 30 units of urea/acre as soon as possible. Ewes are being scanned this week and multiple births will start concentrate feeding next week.