Farm benchmarking: The new year provides the opportunity to start afresh and set new targets for your farm. The only accurate way to know where you need to focus your attention is to access where improvements need to be made. The best way to do this is to do a whole farm review or benchmark exercise. This will provide you with a financial breakdown of each farm enterprise (spring-calving/autumn-calving/ sheep/arable) on the farm.

Once this has been done, a plan can be put in place to improve. Even where performance is very good, there are always areas that can be improved on. The top-performing farms are those that are never satisfied that they are doing things to their best ability. They are always looking for areas to improve.

Data for benchmarking will be more difficult to gather if farm records are poor on farm. This calving season, keep a diary of cows to calf, number assisted, calf deaths (both within 24 hours and after 24 hours) and at the end of the season, number of calves weaned.

Likewise for sheep, record the scan percentage, number of lambs born dead and alive and again number weaned later in the season. If you are scanning at 190% and only weaning at 130%, where are the losses coming? Pre-lambing, at lambing or post-lambing? Looking at where the losses are occurring will determine the course of action in years to come.

Calving Intervention: How quickly should you should take action when cows are calving? This question comes up regularly. On some farms, there is a tendency to panic and intervene too early when a cow is calving. Early intervention can sometimes also occur late at night as it may ease management to have the cow calved and the calf sucked before bedtime. However, starting to pull the calf too early before the cervix has fully opened can create calving problems. Also, the calf may not be in the correct position and pulling too early can place stress on the cow and calf. Excessive pulling of the calf can lead to further problems with suckling once the calf is born, with some calves unable to stand for days.

Generally speaking, once the water bag has burst, you should observe on 30-minute intervals to check progress but do not disturb the cow. If calving is progressing well, you should not intervene. If the calf has not been born within two hours of the water bag bursting, you should then intervene to check for malpresentation or if veterinary assistance is required.

Always be extremely careful when entering a pen with a cow calving. With a heifer, allow one hour to calve after the water bag bursts before intervening. If she is making progress, leave her be. When progress stops or the calf becomes distressed, then step in and assist. With cows in good body condition, restricting silage intake or moving on to a hay diet for two to three weeks pre-calving may reduce calving difficulty. Good minerals are essential when feeding low-protein forages such as hay. Feeding 0.5kg soya bean meal daily per cow two to three weeks before calving can help boost colostrum production.