Spring calving finished just over a week ago, with 32 cows calved in total – nine of which were heifers. There should have been 33 cows to calve, but one animal lost her calf late in the pregnancy.

There were a couple of losses, but at this point in time there are 30 cows with 31 live calves in the herd. The two cows that lost calves will be fattened and culled.

A set of twins was born too late in the calving period to be able to foster a calf onto one of these two animals. I also did not want to buy in calves in case of a potential disease risk.

I have plenty of heifers coming through, so having two extra cull animals is not really a problem this year.

Calving spread

The first calf was born on 28 February and from start to finish all cows calved down in a little over seven weeks, so it was an extremely busy spring and put housing under pressure for a short period.

Thankfully, ground conditions have improved significantly from mid-April onwards and cows have gone out to grass.

At present, there are 25 spring-calving cows at grass. These animals have all been vaccinated for Lepto and BVD, with their calves dehorned.

The remaining five cows have yet to be vaccinated, but will be seen to in the coming week. Once vaccinated and with calves dehorned, they will join the rest of the cows. Calves will also be vaccinated for clostridial diseases in the coming weeks, once they are all at a suitable age to treat the entire group in one go.

Thoughts turn to breeding

With calving finished, the next big task to prepare for is breeding. All cows are bred to AI, which I carry out myself.

My plan is to start inseminating cows in mid-May, similar to last year. For the first five weeks, I will AI cows to natural heats.

After this point, I may consider using some kind of synchronisation programme to stimulate any cows that have not shown a heat by this point in time.

Spring-born bulls are coming close to slaughter, with the first animals expected to be killed in late May.

However, this usually applies to a small number of animals. Cows are already showing signs of heat and there has been strong bulling activity at grass this week.

Replacement heifers

There are 20 yearling heifers at grass, from which I will keep 10-12 heifers as replacements and calve down next spring.

These animals are a mix of AI Limousin, Simmental and Angus bulls bred from proven maternal sires.

As I will be tight for grazing and silage ground this year, my plan is to sell off the remaining heifers that are not kept for breeding.

These animals will be sold in May and have been at grass for close to one month now. They will make ideal replacements, but they are surplus to requirement in my herd.

Autumn-calving cows scanned and weaned

Autumn-calving cows were weaned in early April and have been turned out to rougher ground on an outfarm.

All cows were scanned in February and there are 24 in-calf, along with eight heifers. Four heifers scanned empty. After an excellent start to the breeding period last autumn, bulling activity slowed and I ended up synchronising 10 cows, which were mainly first and second-calving animals.

This means most autumn cows will calve down in early August, with some later-calving animals running into late September.

Replacement heifers

As with the spring herd, I have an abundance of heifers to select from the autumn herd, with another 20 animals just weaned. These animals will be grazed and the best animals served next autumn, with surplus heifers preferably sold live. Housing is limited, with space for 60 cows, split between spring and autumn. The remainder of housing is used to finish male cattle as young bulls.

Spring bulls

There are 15 spring-born bulls which are now 13 months old. They are due to be weighed, but should be in the range of 600kg to 640kg. The bulls were last weighed on 9 March and averaged 549kg. They were eating 12kg/day of concentrate and moved onto ad-lib feeding on 12 April. Once they’ve been weighed again, I will make a call on when to kill these animals. If they are gaining adequate weights to cover feed costs, I will continue feeding into late May before slaughter.

Bulls

There are 10 autumn bulls weaned and at grass. Bulls were last weighed on 9 April with an average liveweight of 339kg, with the heaviest animals close on 380kg.

They were allowed out to grass in late February, but had limited grazing in March. They’ve been at grass since early April and the on/off grazing helped to smooth the weaning process.

Bulls were eating 4kg/day of concentrate in January and February, but they have been gradually weaned off meal since turnout in April.

They will graze until August and then be housed for intensive finishing.