Aonghusa Fahy - January 2024

Calving

Calving kicked off in the first week of February with a difficult calving. I was observing the cow closely and decided to handle her when there was no progression.  I was met with four hoofs and immediately thought of twins . After some further investigation I soon figured out that it was just one, thankfully.   The calf was not that big so I managed to manoeuvre   it into position. I had rang a neighbour earlier and he arrived as I was just putting on the jack I was glad to see him. My arm was numb from handling the cow and we got the calf out with a small pull. As we looked at the excited cow licking her new born I was so grateful that it wasn’t the middle of the night with no one around.

I also lost a fine Charolais calf. The cow calved normally and all was good but when I checked the following morning he was dead. She laid on the calf. While disappointed , it is one of those things that I have no control over. The calving pens are plenty big enough and I bed them well with straw. 

However, the rest of the calving has gone great. Ten more calved in just over two weeks and I have never seen the calves to get up and suck so quickly. They are really  lively and I am putting it down to a good quality dry cow mineral. It contains 30% magnesium, 4% phosphorous and all of the copper is in a protected form.  I am seeing calves getting up and sucking within thirty minutes. It takes a lot of pressure off.

Grazing Strategy

The weather has been very wet . The land here outside Ardrahan is dry and I generally have no issues getting cattle out to grass in February. I did manage to get 10 maiden heifers out  for two weeks.  I picked the driest ground that had a medium level of grass. I have found in the past, letting out cattle to fields with heavy covers of grass that they will only walk it in. They need a few days to get used of eating grass after been indoors since November so lower covers are more suitable.

The heifers are a priority group that I intend to breed at the end of April so I want them to be between 380 and 400kg. I was moving them every 2 days and they managed to graze off two paddocks. However, I had to re-house them as ground conditions were getting worse. I have no issue running them back in if I have to.

The cows and calves are out by day in a field beside the shed. It cuts down on a lot of bedding and labour. I even see the very young calves creeping out under the fence ahead of the cows for a dry spot.

The slatted tanks are full so getting slurry out is a priority. While I like to graze off first, my contractor has a trail and shoe tanker so the slurry won’t spoil the grass that much. Slurry is a valuable resource for nutrients so getting it out now when grass needs it most is important. Soil temperatures have been consistently over 5 degrees. It is the ground conditions that is stopping me at the minute. I have also have half-a-ton of protected urea left over and I will spread it at 20units per acre as soon as possible.